


Your Turn to Mine Diamonds

by funnycateatlasanga



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), キミガシネ | Kimi ga Shine | Your Turn To Die (Visual Novel)
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 65,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22770595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnycateatlasanga/pseuds/funnycateatlasanga
Summary: The Sub-Game has seemingly just ended, and everybody has collected enough Clear Chips to survive.However, Rio Ranger has a deadly final attraction prepared to begin thinning the numbers, and it may not be what you expect.When Ranger tasks twelve participants of the Death Game with surviving in a harsh Minecraft world, not all turns out to be fun and games. Behind the scenes, hidden secrets and pieces of a bigger puzzle are slowly gathered, until coming together into a dark truth that nobody wants to accept.
Comments: 42
Kudos: 129





	1. Sub-Game Cessation

“One… two… three… four...”

Sara must’ve counted them at least five times over by now, but she had to make absolutely sure she had enough. The trust barter game hosted by that wretched doll named Rio Ranger had come to a close, and everyone was expected to have gathered ten of these golden Clear Chips by the end of the game, which they could gain from clearing Ranger’s deadly attractions.

And, sure enough, ten of the golden stars rested in her palm. She breathed a sigh of relief, finally satisfied with the answer that she wasn’t going to face whatever punishment Ranger had in mind for those who failed to meet his requirement, but her relief suddenly turned to worry. Stuffing her Clear Chips in a safe place, she then rushed out from her bedroom to the lobby, hoping to see all eleven of the other faces she had grown to recognise.

With some degree of hesitation in her mind, she walked through the doorway to the lobby, and her heart sank upon the sight she saw.  
Not a single other person was present.

“No way…” she breathed out, assuming the absolute worst possible scenario. Was it really possible she was the only person to get all ten Clear Chips? She remembered hearing some talk about how they felt they didn’t have a lot before today, so, maybe it really was true…

“Guys...!” she cried out, hoping anyone would hear. “Where are you!?”  
But there was no response. Sara was left to look about the empty lobby, staring at seats that should be full, where her friends had sat just last night.  
Her eyes settled on the window, the false morning sun shining radiantly upon her. Such an uplifting sight, and yet Sara didn’t happen to feel very optimistic. She clutched her breast pocket, where she had kept her Clear Chips.  
She should’ve shared them more. If she had just worked harder, she could’ve got more chips for everyone. But it was already too late - it was the fourth day, and Ranger’s game had come to a close. No more exchanges would be had. With her free hand, she clutched her head, scrunching her hair under the grasped area. It was already too late to do anything for them.

“Sheesh… that wasn’t so bad, was it?”  
A familiar voice came from the doorway she had just entered the lobby through, stopping Sara in her tracks.  
Alice confidently sauntered into the lobby, and threw himself down onto one of the chairs, with such force that a flimsier chair may have collapsed.  
He wore a cocksure grin, and nonchalantly regarded Sara.  
“This worthless Sub-Game is over already?”

“Alice…!” Sara choked out, relieved beyond words that someone else was here with her. Though it had truly only been a couple minutes or so that she was alone in that room, it felt more like an eternity.

Alice’s expression morphed to one of surprise, before quickly changing to a look of confusion.  
“What is it, Sara Chidouin? You seem… disgruntled?”  
Of course, he had no clue how worried she was about him - about everyone. Sara said nothing else though, merely sighing in relief and allowing her grips to weaken, and her arms to fall back to her sides.

Alice just shrugged, deciding that if she wasn’t going to tell him what was up with her, he didn’t need to worry about it. Besides, his attention was suddenly drawn to something else at the doorway. Sara followed his gaze, and her heart was once again uplifted to see a certain other tall and muscular man walk into the room.

“...Morning.” Keiji began. “Pretty refreshing one, eh?”  
Alice nodded in approval - at least somebody in this room agreed with that statement, because Sara definitely didn’t.

“The hell’s refreshing about this?” another voice sounded out, as more and more people began to pour into the room. Reko stepped into the room, giving Keiji a questioning glare.

“Dammit…!” Q-taro had non-subtly entered the room as well, and he was certainly not sharing the same sunny disposition the other two men in the room had currently, as he was visibly anxious.  
“In the end… we’ve still got no means of escape!”  
As more and more people entered, Sara’s anxiety began to slowly fade away. But there was one person she still desperately wanted to see come through that doorway.

On a completely unrelated note, Sou entered the room as well.  
“Now, now…” he began, his tonation similar to that of a teacher or parent about to lecture a child about a minor infraction they had made.  
“Maybe we should be glad we’re all still alive, huh?” He gave Q-taro a smile, but it clearly didn’t do much to ease his worries.  
Though, what he said was certainly true. Up until this point in the Death Game, not a single person has died. They had managed to make it this far, so maybe they had a chance after all. Who would’ve thought Sou of all people could inspire such an optimistic thought? Certainly not Sara.

“Yes. We have done quite well to make it this far.” Kai said, joining the group inside of the lobby. That made six, not including Sara. Though, she barely had time for a head count before more people began to enter.

Kanna came in without a word, quietly finding herself a spot next to Sou. The sight made Sara feel a bit uncomfortable considering what those two have been getting up to recently, but she still had a couple other worries on her mind right now.

“The loner’s a loner, but still stubborn, woof!” It wasn’t much of a wonder who that was. Sou shot a glance towards the boy, but didn’t otherwise comment on the vague insult he just had thrown at him.  
“What a world, meow!” Gin finished, as he made his way to Sara’s side. At least she knew he was okay.

Mishima came in alongside Nao, which wasn’t all too unexpected for everyone else. He likely made sure she was safe before coming to the lobby.  
“Ah, it would appear everyone is doing quite well.” Mishima observed with a smile.  
“I’m glad no one had to be sacrificed!” Nao happily stated, despite the grim reminder it put on everyone in the room. Their lives were definitely at stake here, despite the fact that everyone seemed to currently be doing all right, that could all change in an instant.

Moments passed, which turned to minutes. Everyone chatted amongst each other, but Sara didn’t feel up for discussion. She looked about the room, looking for the last member of their group. But as time went on, her anxiety began to rise once more. Her frantic glancing about the room began to grab Keiji’s attention.  
“Hey, Sara… You doing all right?” he asked, rhetorically. She quite clearly wasn’t doing all right, and Sara found herself unable to say anything. She tried to lie and say she was fine, but found the words wouldn’t come out.

He also wasn’t coming out. Why wasn’t he coming out? He had done fine on the attractions, or, at least, she thought he did. He had always given her a big smile and told her not to worry about him - that he had his chip count under control. Maybe he was just trying to keep her out of harm's way? What if he didn’t get ten of them in time? Thoughts of “what ifs” and “maybes” flooded her mind, threatening to overtake her, until a voice pierced straight through her anxiety.

“Maaaan, that was a good sleep!” Joe said, coming into the room last, and catching everyone’s attention.  
“Wuh oh...” he said, seeing that everyone else was already here. “Looks like I’m late to the party!” He tried to just laugh it off, but soon found himself startled by Sara.

“Joe!” Sara exclaimed. “You’re… you’re alive!” she said incredulously, as if she doubted he could ever survive on his own at all.

“Uhhhhh…” he began. “...yeah? Were you worried about me, Sara?” He gave an uplifting, short laugh, and began rummaging around in his pockets. “Don’t worry…” He pulled out a collection of Clear Chips, and showed them to her. Sure enough, he had ten.  
Joe gave Sara a bright smile, in hopes of cheering her up. “I got all those chip things right here!”

All of Sara’s anxiety melted away in an instant, and she suddenly felt very deflated. But, everyone was okay, and that’s what matters. And for that, she couldn’t be more glad. The kidnappers weren’t going to get their way anytime soon.  
Or, at least, she _was_ glad. Until one last person decided to show up.

“Huh, didn’t count on this…” That voice. That voice, which just gets stuck in your head in the absolute worst way. The sing-songy, smarmy voice of Rio Ranger.  
The over designed atrocity had decided to regard the group. He put his free hand on his left hip to feign the image that he was impressed with everyone, as his right hand was too busy holding up his mask.  
“Y’all bastards are cockroach-level stubborn!” 

Alice chuckled to himself, and crossed his arms in full confidence.  
“Don’t make light of us!” he shouted at the doll. “We’re MORE stubborn than roaches!” he said with a smirk, as if that was something to be particularly proud of.

Ranger didn’t even flinch at Alice’s boisterous display though, and merely rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Guess I underestimated that.”  
“Honestly,” he continued. “I figured at least one of y’all’d die.”  
“Yeah right!” Joe interjected. “There’s no way you could get rid of us that easily!” Joe seemingly shared Alice’s enthusiasm, down to making a nearly identical gesture.

“Well, whatever.” Ranger said, blowing off Joe’s remark. “There’s a place I wantcha all to come to.” he explained.  
That caught everyone’s attention, and seeing everyone suddenly stand at attention brought a wry smile to Ranger’s face, though it’s not as if anyone could see it.

“What!? Don’t tell me…” Q-taro began.  
“Could you already be planning to host the Main Game?” Mishima asked, finishing Q-taro’s thought.

Ranger shook his head, his smile growing larger behind his mask.  
“Not just yet… Gotta save the most fun for last… But trust me, you bastards aren’t gonna weasel out of it again...” That statement didn’t really do much to inspire hope in the group, and everyone began wondering what Ranger could be up to this time.  
Reko growled and muttered something under her breath at the doll, having long since become irritated with this poor excuse of a man.  
“C’mon,” Ranger began, seemingly looking straight past the group. “Just look behind ya’!”

Instinctively, everybody turned around to see what Ranger was talking about, just in time to see the back wall - which once had the window upon it - open up, and reveal itself to have been a hidden door the whole time.  
Everyone reacted with various degrees of surprise, murmuring to themselves about it.

“Great design, right?” Ranger said, definitely not talking about his own. “I want you to go through there.”  
He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Scratch that - you ARE gonna come through, if you don’t wanna get killed!” he threatened, not giving the group much of a choice in the matter. He went on ahead, signalling everyone else to follow.

Nao nervously stared at the door, before looking up at Mishima for guidance. “W-what should we do…?” she stuttered out.  
“Do not worry, Miss Nao.” Mishima began. “We won within the boundaries of the rules set for us.”  
“Right.” Keiji affirmed. “It shouldn’t be anything too absurd…”

Gin merely sighed at the matter. “Guess we gotta, meow. Let’s go, woof…” With a bit of hesitation, he began walking towards the door, with everyone else mobilising too. The group entered the room behind the wall, and found themselves in a dimly lit room, with Rio Ranger and his more bearable punching bag Tia Safalin waiting for them inside. They were sat on chairs at the head of a large, round table, with extra seats for every person currently in the group. In front of each chair, on the table was a closed laptop, with a USB mouse attached. Ranger and Safalin had one each as well, but theirs were already powered on.  
“Looks like the bastards have assembled!” Ranger said, seeing everyone enter the room.

However, he was beginning to test their patience.  
“What do you want from us now, meow!?” Gin shouted at the two dolls, much to Safalin’s chagrin. She was really not being much of a disturbance here.  
“We collected our Clear Chips, as instructed.” Kai calmly stated. “There should no longer be any issue.”  
“Yeah!” affirmed Reko. “This stupid game’s over, you damn dolls!”

Ranger leaned back on his chair casually before responding to their arguments.  
“Nah. Sorry to say, but the Sub-Game’s not over yet.”  
The group began to murmur to each other once more, wondering what he could possibly mean by that. He didn’t mention anything like this before.  
“After all, we still have a special, final attraction for you bastards!” he announced. He gestured to the seats around the table. “So? Come on, take a seat!”

Everyone hesitantly sat down in a chair. They were quite certain this was a trap, but the nature of it was the question here. Regardless, they knew they didn’t have a choice in this matter, and had to eventually sit down. 

“Great!” Ranger said once everyone had been seated. “Alright, I’ll just start with a question…” He leaned forward, looking at everyone around the table. Everyone else began to lean in as well, ready for whatever soul-shaking question Ranger was sure to ask.  
“...You bastards ever heard of Minecraft?”

...What?  
“Oh! I have!” Joe hastily exclaimed, raising his hand. Most of everyone else around the table murmured in varying degrees of agreement and confusion, but a few seemed quite a bit more confused than others.  
“Very good!” Ranger said. “That’ll make this a whole lot easier. The rest of you... you’ll figure it out.” he finished, seemingly not feeling up to explain the mechanics and base concept of Minecraft to everyone.  
“That’s what this final attraction is all about! You just have to play Minecraft!” Ranger explained, though he was clearly leaving out quite a few key details. “Really!?” Joe asked. “Just that? Man, this’ll be easy! Leave it to me, guys! I’m an expert at Minecraft!”  
“Is that so, huh?” Ranger rhetorically asked. “Have you ever tried playing Minecraft on… Hardcore Mode?”

Joe seemed taken aback by that, and he glanced around the table, suddenly at a loss for words. To a lot of other people there, it didn’t seem clear why that suddenly shut him up.  
“Uh…” he mumbled.  
“Awww…” Ranger teased. “Where’d all that confidence go? I thought you were a Minecraft expert!”  
“Hardcore Mode…” Sou repeated to himself. “That’s the mode where if you die, you can’t respawn…” he muttered.  
“Yep! Do you see where I’m going with this now, you bastards? It’s not just that, either! Hardcore Mode is _seriously_ difficult! It’s the apex of Minecraft difficulty! Some of the best Minecraft players out there can’t even overcome it. Let alone a bunch of newbies!” Ranger taunted.  
“Hey!” Joe said back. “I’m not a newbie! I’ve played a ton of Minecraft! I bet I can do this just fine!” he said, with wavering confidence.  
However, Sou nodded with him. “I’ve definitely got over a thousand hours logged in Minecraft. I’m sure I have a chance.” But as he looked around the table, he began to frown. “Though… I’m not too sure about you guys.”

His gaze met and danced around the figures of the more uneasy people present. If they were getting this worked up about just thinking about playing Minecraft, they could be in trouble.

“I… I don’t even know what a Minecraft is!” exclaimed Q-taro. “I’m no good with this stuff!”  
“Too bad!” Ranger interjected. “You’re not getting out of this one without playing some Minecraft!”  
“I must say, I have also never heard of Minecraft. However, I will try my best.” Kai said, with a lot more confidence than Q-taro had.  
“Seriously?” Joe asked. “How do you guys not know about Minecraft!? It’s, like, the best game ever.”  
“Um…” Kanna began. “Kanna… has played Minecraft before… but only once.”  
Reko looked around the table, noticing many eyes were on her. “Tch! Are you guys seriously judging me ‘cause I don’t know how to play a video game for kids!?”  
“Hey! Minecraft isn’t just for kids!” Joe interjected.  
“I must agree - the few times I played it, I quite enjoyed it. Perhaps it really is for all ages.” Mishima said sagefully, giving a bit of a surprise to everyone present, with the exception of Nao - who would’ve guessed Mishima of all people would be into Minecraft?  
“Yeah!” Nao decided to say her piece. “Professor Mishima and I have played Minecraft before! We can help!”  
Gin seemed pretty confident in his Minecraft skills as well. “I think I’ll do a good job here, meow! I might not have tried Hardcore Mode before, but I’ve definitely played a lot of Minecraft, woof!”  
“Yeah!” said Joe enthusiastically. “And hey, Sara! You’ve played Minecraft with me before! You’ll do great!”  
Sara reluctantly nodded, however the support of her best friend did well to lift her spirits. Maybe she really could do this.  
“Never played it.” Keiji said nonchalantly. “But… I’ll give it a shot.”

That left only one. One person, who, until now, had gone unnoticed in discussion. Alice began chuckling to himself, louder and louder.  
“Eh?” Ranger looked at him. “What’re you giggling about, you bastard?”  
Alice looked up at Ranger, his eyes piercing his very soul. Were he able to, he would certainly feel intimidated by the amount of alpha energy currently emanating from Alice.

“You really are a fool, Rio Ranger.”  
“...What?” Ranger's eyes narrowed at the alpha criminal. What was this guy on about this time?  
“I am a Minecraft GOD.” Alice had the biggest grin on his face, as if his entire life had been leading up to this moment. Perhaps it has.  
“I have memorised every crafting recipe. I have slain the Ender Dragon countless times. Nothing can defeat me. I could complete this challenge of yours by myself!”  
“Whoa…” Joe muttered from the sidelines, impressed by Alice’s prowess.  
However, Ranger was less impressed. “Wow! We got a tough guy over here! How about you put your money where your mouth is, huh? Let’s see how great you are.”

“...Hold on.” Keiji interrupted. “Before we start, I’d like to confirm something.”  
Ranger looked at him expectantly, and so Keiji continued.  
“You called this the final attraction just earlier, right?”  
“Uh huh! Sure did!” Ranger confirmed.  
“And, so far… every attraction has been pretty dangerous.”  
“Uh huh…”  
“So, I’m assuming there’s deadly consequences for failing this one as well. Is that right?” Keiji said, finishing his thought.

Ranger was silent for a moment, as a twisted grin spread across his face behind his mask.  
“You're a sharp bastard, aren't you? Alright - listen up everyone, because it might save your life!” Ranger began to explain. It would seem this isn’t a regular fun game of Minecraft after all.  
“As said before, if you die in Hardcore Mode, you die permanently! Usually, it’s just in the game, but this time, you’ll die in real life too! We’ll make sure of it!”

The group half erupted into shocked chattering, while the other half already realised Ranger was likely going to pull something like this.  
“In Hardcore Mode, you can die of things you wouldn’t usually die of in a regular Survival world. So you’d better keep an eye on your health, you bastards!”

Everyone seemed pretty nervous about this prospect. Were they really going to risk their very lives on Minecraft, of all things? It seemed absurd, but did they really have any other choice than to bite the bullet here?  
“Aww, what’s the matter?” Ranger taunted. “You were so optimistic just a second ago!”

"That was before we knew we were playing with our lives, meow!" Gin shouted, angry with the doll.  
"Come on, don't be like that! Haven't you bastards been risking your lives in the previous attractions anyway? What's one more, huh?" Ranger retorted, not expecting anyone to actually agree with him that it wasn't so bad. However, someone else at the table nodded.  
"I must agree." Alice began. "We have escaped with our lives time and time again!" he bellowed, boisterously. "Besides, if I had to bet my life on any game, I would surely choose Minecraft anyway!" His confidence was completely unshaken, to Ranger's surprise. Alice was turning out to be quite the tough nut to crack.

“I’m guessing there’s no way out of this.” Sou sighed. “We’ll have to be as safe as possible. If you’re less experienced, stay out of combat scenarios and let us do the difficult work.” Sou was about to continue telling everyone about the optimal play here, but he was interrupted.  
“Hey!” Ranger snapped at him. “No more strategizing until you’re in the game! We don't have all day here, you know! Cantcha save it for later?" Sou frowned, but shut up. By the time they were in the game, it might be hard to hold a strategy meeting considering the harsh circumstances. Ranger composed himself, and prepared to say the final condition of the deadly attraction. "Oh, and by the way, the final attraction will end when the Ender Dragon has been killed. So until then, good luck you bastards!”

Ranger leaned back on his chair and looked about the table expectantly. Seeing this as their cue to start playing, everyone stared down at the laptops in front of them, and one by one opened them and powered them on. Could they really do this? With the exception of Alice, and maybe Sou, it didn't seem as if anyone here had played Minecraft Hardcore before, so it was going to be a serious challenge to have all twelve of them survive in such a hostile environment. But so long as they worked together and everyone did their part, maybe they could bring down the Ender Dragon without losing anybody.

But no matter what they faced, one thing was sure. They were going to need all of the luck they could get.


	2. Stranded Together

As soon as everyone’s laptops powered on, the Minecraft client opened, and the title screen was displayed. No matter how hard anyone tried, it seemed impossible to close the game or even tab out of it - apparently, Ranger made sure you could only possibly play Minecraft on these things, and do nothing else.  
With no other option, everyone clicked the large, grey Multiplayer button. A new menu opened, and after some moments, everyone saw that a LAN server very close nearby had been automatically detected.

“Just click on that server right there!” Ranger instructed everyone. “You’ll connect to a server hosted on my laptop here!”  
Everybody did what he said, and the world began to load in. From here on, it would be a constant struggle to survive, that most of them were nowhere near ready for, but Ranger wasn’t at all merciful enough to grace them with a practice period, or any do overs for that matter. Here, it was do or die.

Everybody’s Minecraft avatars appeared in the world, having been previously designed personally by Ranger to look just like their real life counterparts. At least, as far as he could do with the limited tools he had available.  
Everyone took a moment to take in their surroundings, and the more experienced players heart’s sank. They found themselves isolated on an island barely large enough to fit all twelve of them, with only a single tree present, and no other useful resources.

“What!? Ugh, talk about an unlucky start!” Joe remarked, groaning, but Sou remorsefully shook his head.  
“I doubt it’s a coincidence we’re in this situation.” he began. “Knowing Ranger, he probably chose the least convenient place possible for us to start in.”  
This got Alice’s attention, and he glared at Ranger in an accusatory manner. “Seriously!? Is this your doing, Rio Ranger!?” he shouted at the doll.

“Hey, you should be grateful, y’know!” Ranger said, defending himself. “I could’ve just spawned you all in the middle of the ocean! At least I actually gave you bastards _any_ resources!” What he said was true - this situation was far from inescapable, despite the fact that it would make it more of a challenge to survive the first night.

Sou sighed. “Well, no time to waste, I guess. Everyone, start by breaking all the leaves off that tree. If you get any saplings, plant them in the dirt immediately.”  
“Alright!” Reko said enthusiastically. “Those leaves aren’t gonna stand a chance!” Her Minecraft avatar set off towards the tree in a full sprint, and steadily began breaking the leaves on top of the tree. Others mobilised to stage their assault on the tree, with the exception of Q-taro, who was busy trying his best to figure out the controls. 

Meanwhile, Joe, Sou and Alice were discussing how to optimally spend the limited amount of wood they currently have available.  
“Well, we _definitely_ need a pickaxe. And that means a crafting table.” Joe said, doing the math of how much wood that would take in his head, however Sou ended up doing it for him.  
“So that would require three logs out of five...” he began. “But we’d also have just a few more sticks and planks left over.”  
“Alright!” Joe said, enthusiastically. “That’s the perfect amount to make a shovel!”  
“Wait!” Alice stopped him, desperately. “We do not need a shovel! It would be a waste of valuable resources for such a lackluster tool!”  
“Oh… right.” Joe replied, sheepishly. “Sorry. Got kinda ahead of myself.”  
The trio crafted their pickaxe and chose Alice to wield it. He accepted the duty with an immeasurable and somewhat uncomfortable amount of pride, and began mining for cobblestone after Joe and Sou had dug out a small area of sand with their hands.

“Oh!” a voice rang out from another part of the room. “Kanna… got a sapling!” Kanna said, her Minecraft avatar clutching a sapling in her hand.  
“Ah, congratulations, Miss Kanna.” Mishima said with a smile. “Plant it in the ground here, and we will have another tree in no time.”  
“Okay...!” she said, right clicking the ground beneath her to plant the sapling.  
“Got one too.” Keiji said casually, planting it in the ground without further instruction.  
“Awright!” Q-taro exclaimed with enthusiasm, having learned the controls well enough to walk over to the group by the tree. “Now we’re gonna have two whole trees!”  
Everyone was silent for a moment as they watched the saplings.  
“...So, uh…” Reko started to ask. “How long do they take to grow?”  
Gin thought about that question for a short while. “About five minutes, woof.”  
“Five whole minutes!?” Reko exclaimed. “What are we even gonna do in that time!?”  
“I suppose we merely have to wait.” said Mishima, matter of factly. “There isn’t much else we are able to do at the current moment.”  
“Hmm. Perhaps we could instead scavenge for food for the time being.” Kai suggested. “There are many sea creatures in the ocean surrounding us.”  
“That’s a good idea, Kai.” Sara affirmed. “So long as we’re careful not to drown, we can catch fish to eat.”  
Everyone waded into the water, punching any fish they found to bring them back to land with them. Despite Q-taro nearly drowning a couple times due to his inexperience, their trip went quite well. 

In fact, things were going _too_ well, to Ranger’s chagrin. Alice had mined out quite the area of stone, a few more trees had grown and been harvested, and the group had enough fish to feed them for the time being, but who knows how they would fare come night time? Speaking of, the sun was beginning to set over the horizon.

“Better watch out, you bastards!” Ranger warned. “Night’s gonna be here pretty soon! You’d better prepare yourselves, or you won’t last a second out there!”  
“Right…” Sou said, recognizing they didn’t have a lot of time left. “We haven’t even started building a shelter yet, but if we start now, I bet we could make one in time.”  
“Quite right, Sou. A basic shelter should take merely a minute to build.” Mishima affirmed. “Let us get started, hmm?”  
Work on construction began, the shelter being composed mainly of cobblestone, as it was currently the most bountiful resource available to them, however some sand and dirt was thrown in as well. It would surely end up being a sight to revolt any exterior designer.  
Ranger began to think to himself - the way things were going, they were going to survive the first night with very minimal effort. That is, unless he did something about it.

He methodically typed something on his laptop with only his left hand, and Safalin glanced over to see what he was typing.  
“...Ranger… You shouldn’t do that…” she quietly said to him.  
Ranger’s glance shifted from his screen to her instead. “What’s the matter, Safalin?” he responded with a smirk behind his mask he was pointlessly still holding up. “It’s just a joke, okay? Don’t be such a stick in the mud! It’s not like I was _actually_ gonna send it.”  
Safalin gave him a distrustful look, but backed off, knowing she'd only be reprimanded if she pressed further. “...Okay… If you say so...” She definitely still didn’t trust Ranger to follow through on his word. Regardless, she looked back to her own laptop, where she was spectating the group as they constructed their terrible shelter.  
“Whoops!” Ranger exclaimed, as he purposefully and very non-subtly pressed his enter key, and the sky immediately turned black, time itself being manipulated so that night instantly fell.  
Safalin shot a warning glare at the orange doll, who was wearing a mischievous and insincere smile. 

Sounds of confusion and exclamations of worry came from all around the table at the prospect of being caught by nocturnal monsters while in the middle of constructing the only shelter they had. Everyone desperately began placing more blocks, but monsters had already started to spawn into the world around them.  
“No time…” Q-taro muttered, already beginning to crack under the pressure. “There ain’t any time!”  
“Ah… Ah…” Nao was beginning to panic as well, and her hands started to freeze up. However, a uniting voice attempted to pierce through the veil of anxiety, as Alice sat up straight to regard the group. Somebody had to keep everyone under control in this situation or they'd never get anything done before it's too late.  
“Contain yourselves!” he shouted. “This situation is grim, but if we work together, we can-” Alice found his rousing speech interrupted when a louder, and much more concerned voice overtook his own.  
**“Alice!”** it shouted. “Behind you!”

Alice’s Minecraft avatar turned around, but it was already too late. A creeper had managed to sneak up on him while he was trying to command everyone, and to Alice’s horror, it was moments away from detonation.

In that instant, memories of Alice’s Minecraft career flashed before his eyes. From constructing his very first house, to finding his first ever diamond, to finally slaying the Ender Dragon for the first time, a feat he had previously thought to be impossible to him. And yet, it was all going to come to an end - and in such a pitiful way as well. As he heard the creeper begin to hiss, he closed his eyes in despair, knowing there was nothing left to do but to accept defeat. 

The deafening sound of the explosion that rang out afterwards reverberated throughout his very soul, shocking him to his core. It was over. It was all over for him, and on the very first night as well. The group had just lost the most experienced player they had. They would never recover from this loss, both in morale and team composition.

“...Alice…” Joe breathed out. “I… I made it. I made it just in time…”  
Alice slowly opened his eyes to assess the damage, and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. In front of him stood Joe’s Minecraft avatar, with a wooden shovel held tightly in his hand. A crater created by the creeper’s explosion was left in the ground next to them, and Alice had sustained serious damage, but he was alive. 

Almost everyone was completely shocked to silence at the events that just unfolded in front of all of them.  
“Joe… Jou Tazuna, you…” Alice sputtered out, in disbelief. Joe had just narrowly saved him from the jaws of death, with merely a gardening tool to assist him.  
“H-huh?” Joe asked, the adrenaline coursing through him still refusing to subside. “Oh…” He realised what Alice meant - or, at least, he thought he did. “Yeah… sorry.” Alice was bewildered. Had Joe seriously just apologised for saving his life?

“I know you said it was a waste of resources, but…” Joe continued. “I ended up making the shovel anyway. I thought I’d end up nee-”  
“For-forget about the shovel!” Alice interrupted. “Get everyone inside of the shelter!”  
“R-right! Got it!” Joe set off running around the island, batting away monsters with his shovel, and escorting the less experienced players towards the shoddy shelter, which was currently just barely suitable for survival. Alice would have to thank him for this later, but in the meantime, he desperately needed cover. He dashed towards the shelter, bursting through the door and slamming it shut behind him. Normally it would feel cowardly to have to retreat to cover and hide in a situation such as this, but he currently had no other option. Going back out in his current state would absolutely be a death sentence, and Joe could only bail him out so many times.

Most of everyone else had already taken refuge in the shelter, having sustained enough injuries outside to send them running for cover, much as Alice just did.  
Gin was shaking in fear, the reality of the situation crashing down on him after he just had a close brush with death - however he had managed to defend himself and make his way inside. He looked to the person to his left in real life, hoping to find support in them.  
“Big… Big Sis Sara, meow…” he quietly whispered to her.  
“It’s okay, Gin.” she reassured him, comforting him the best she could. “We’re all going to be okay.” The comfort of his friend eased his fears somewhat, but he still didn’t allow himself to relax. Joe was still out there on rescue efforts, after all.

“Oh, man…” Q-taro began, having taken off his hat to rake his hand through his sweat-marred hair. “This is insane! I thought video games were s’posed to be fun!” He certainly wasn't having a good time here, having been in a near constant state of duress since they started playing.

“...Is everyone still doing okay?” Keiji asked, eyes looking about everyone currently in the shelter. “We haven’t lost anyone?”  
Sou shook his head confidently. “No - we’d definitely know about it, if we did. Whenever someone dies, a message appears on the screen, telling you about it.”  
“I am pleased to hear nobody has died, however…” Kai began, his expression dark. “Many of us still remain outside. I fear for their safety.”

“I… I was totally wrong…” Reko began. “There’s no way a game like this is for kids! This is straight up traumatizing!” Despite her despairing words, Reko was actually still in perfect health. She had immediately taken shelter upon sensing danger, expecting everyone else to do the same, but now she was too afraid to leave. Just as she was mentally beating herself up for not being out there helping Joe out, the door swung open.

“Get in, Kanna!” Joe shouted, as Kanna’s Minecraft avatar hastily ran inside of the shelter. Joe closed the door again, and ran back out, in pursuit of the last two stragglers.  
Towards one of the far edges of the island was Nao, defended by Mishima, who was standing bravely and resolutely in front of her, wielding nothing but a stick to fight back the horde - despite the fact that it wouldn’t actually make him deal any extra damage. He was desperately swatting monster after monster away, but they were beginning to overwhelm him by approaching faster than he could click.

“P-Professor…” Nao breathed out, her voice shaky.  
“It’s okay, Miss Nao. Help is on the way.” Mishima’s voice on the other hand, was firm and comforting, especially as what he was saying was true.  
Joe came barrelling towards them, shovel held tightly in hand, as he knocked the monsters threatening Mishima aside.  
“Don’t worry! Just come with me!” Joe’s Minecraft avatar turned towards the shelter and took off towards it in a full sprint, with Mishima and Nao’s avatars following closely behind.

Joe cleared a path to his destination by knocking aside any monsters that had spawned on the road back to the shelter, allowing the almost completely defenseless pair behind him easy passage to make it back home. Once they had finally reached the shelter’s door, Joe made sure they were both safely inside before entering for himself, and slamming the door shut behind him.  
Upon the sight of Joe returning, everyone in the room with the exception of Ranger breathed a deep sigh of relief, thankful that everyone had narrowly avoided death. However, Ranger instead just subtly turned his head in such a way that he looked at Safalin, giving her a questioning look.

“Everyone… Everyone made it!” Q-taro stated, pumping his fist in the air in celebration. “We did it!”  
“That was… definitely the most stressful situation I’ve ever been in.” Joe said - understandably so, considering he was the one risking his life the most out there.  
“You did great, Joe.” Sara sincerely said to her friend, which was met by Joe merely slowly nodding, as he was clearly mentally exhausted and coming down from his adrenaline rush. “Haha… yeah…” he muttered, leaning back on his chair and finally allowing himself to relax.  
"You have my sincere thanks, Joe." Mishima began. "I know not how much longer I could've held out, if you did not come to our aid when you did."  
Nao nodded as Mishima was speaking. "Thank you so much, Joe!"  
Joe laughed to himself. "Nah, it was nothing. I'm just glad everyone's doing alright now!" he said with a sincere smile.  
“...Y'know, actually... Everyone’s still pretty hurt.” Sou pointed out, pessimistically breaking up celebrations. “Tell you what. I’ll make a furnace. We should cook any food we have to regenerate health.” Sou placed a crafting table in the shelter and used it to create a furnace. Everyone placed the fish they had into the furnace, as Alice loaded in some coal he had retrieved from mining earlier, and everyone slowly watched it cook.

Meanwhile, a small, quiet argument was breaking out on a more remote part of the table.  
“You shouldn’t have interfered like that, Ranger… Especially not in such a harmful way...” A small, feminine voice said, from the head of the table.  
Ranger dismissed her words with a hand-flapping gesture. “Come on, it’s not like I _actually_ did any harm. I just gave them a bit of a scare, that's all!” Ranger replied, half-heartedly attempting to defend his actions.  
“But… we agreed that we wouldn’t do anything like this during the final attraction…” Safalin fired back, which caused Ranger to sneer.  
“Ehhh...?” he said, in an annoying tone. “I don’t remember agreeing to anything like that.”  
“But… but I-” Safalin was interrupted before she could get another word out, Ranger holding a velvet gloved finger up to her face.  
“I don’t wanna hear it, ‘kay? How come you feel the need to make up this stuff just to get on my case, huh? It’s pretty annoying, y’know that, Safalin?”  
Safalin realised she wasn’t going to get through to him anytime soon, and merely looked away from him, pulling the brim of her hat down. A quiet sniffling sound could be heard coming from her, but Ranger really couldn’t care less. The crying doll could never stand her disrespectful superior, and yet she was forced to put up with him and keep her mouth shut while he made a mockery of the Death Game. As is though, there wasn't much she could do about it, and she kept her frustrations internalised. 

“Ah. It would appear the sun is rising.” Kai remarked, peering through the holes in the shelter’s door. Others gathered to watch the sunrise as their former adversaries slowly burned to death in the sun, making the land safe to walk again.  
“Alright, good.” Sou said, going to the crafting table and hastily crafting something. “We need to get off this island as soon as possible, and that means leaving right now. Boats can hold two people at a time, so we only need to make six.”  
“...Makes sense.” Keiji said. “If we can get somewhere with more resources, we’ll have a much easier time.”  
“Right. And the earlier we get there, the more time we have before nightfall.” Sou responded, having finished making all the boats, and exiting the shelter, everyone following after him as he walked to the shore.

Sou placed all six boats into the water, taking the initiative to sit in the front seat of one of them. Joe, Alice and Gin also took the front seat of some of the boats, having the experience required to get everyone to shore. However, two remained empty.  
“Hmm…” Mishima thought to himself. “It would seem we’re short some. However, I am sure I can fill one of those slots.” Mishima placed himself in the front seat of one of the two remaining boats, and Nao began walking towards his boat, taking her seat in the back.  
Reko looked at the boats available to her. She definitely didn’t have the know-how required to sail in Minecraft, so it was a matter of who she would be accompanying. She looked at Alice’s boat for a moment. “Uh… I think I’ll take Gin’s boat, if that’s cool with him.” she said.  
“Sure is, woof! You can sit with me all you like, Big Sis Reko, meow!” Gin replied, excited to have a partner.  
"Thanks, Gin." Reko sat down in Gin’s boat, while Kanna wordlessly decided to seat herself in Sou’s boat. Once more, seeing Kanna and Sou interacting like this continued to breed that uncomfortable feeling inside Sara, even if now it was only currently happening in a video game.

Keiji thought about his options for a moment, but it didn’t take long for him to come to a conclusion. “Guess I’m with Alice. Got no problems there.” he decided.  
“Excellent choice, Keiji Shinogi.” Alice said with a smirk.

“Hey, Sara!” Joe turned his head to Sara in the real world. “You should ride in my boat!” Despite Joe’s enthusiasm, Sara had a couple worries.  
“I’d like to, Joe, but… wouldn’t that leave Q-taro and Kai to have a boat to themselves?” she asked, concerned about the fact that both of them were newcomers.

“We’ll be fine!” Q-taro said, confidently. “With me sailin’, we’ll get to land just fine!”  
“Actually.” Kai quickly appended. “If it is okay with you, I would feel much more comfortable if I were the one to steer the boat.”  
“Huh?” Q-taro replied, confused at how quickly, and perhaps slightly desperately Kai had said that, but he just shrugged it off. “Alright, go fer’ it, Kai!”  
Relieved to not be at the mercy of Q-taro, Kai approached the final, empty boat, taking a seat in the front, with Q-taro sitting in the back. Thankfully, Q-taro’s Minecraft avatar wasn’t proportional to his real life equivalent's size, otherwise it would be a much less comfortable fit.

“See? They’ll be just fine, Sara!” Joe reaffirmed her.  
Sara decided Kai seemed confident and reliable enough for the job, and allowed Joe to have her in his boat. Worst case scenario, they would just have to get out and wade to each other’s boats to change who was in front. “Alright, Joe. I’ll be with you, then.” Sara entered Joe’s boat, to his glee.  
“Awesome!” Joe exclaimed happily. “This is gonna be great!”

“So, is everyone ready?” Sou asked, with a hint of urgency in his voice. “We really need to get moving.”  
He was met with affirmation from all of the other sailors in the group, Alice in particular making sure his voice was heard.  
“...Great. Let’s hope there’s something better on the other side of this ocean.”  
They simultaneously set sail, their boats travelling off into the far distance, undeterred by any waves that would crash against them.

As everyone’s boats disappeared over the horizon, everyone held hope in their hearts. They had successfully carved out their own survival in the worst of conditions, and triumphed over their first night. 

They didn’t know what they would find ahead, but if they had survived so far, they knew they could thrive in whatever new land they would reach the shores of.


	3. Snap Back to Reality

Sara’s eyes flitted about the various body parts strewn about the room. There was a head, left arm, right arm, right leg, and now, thanks to her efforts, a left leg as well. She laid the left leg in front of the doll torso, and took a step back. That was everything, but who knows what was supposed to come next.  
“...We’re doing it…!” said Joe, who was in the room with her. “Okay, I’ll call the others!”  
Joe exited the Pink Room, closing the door behind him and leaving Sara alone with the disassembled doll.

As she waited for Joe to return with everyone else, she had another look around the room. It wasn’t hard to understand why this room made her feel so incredibly uneasy. From the lifeless stuffed animals to the strange hollow barrenness of the room, considering it housed very little other than the obvious - being the pieces of the very realistic doll currently thrown about in front of her - but that isn’t even mentioning the ominous entrance to the room. And there was the matter of that doll itself. Something about the doll’s head seemed hauntingly familiar to her - perhaps it merely looked like someone she knew.

“Hey! Everyone! Come to the Pink Room - we found all the parts!” Joe called out into every room he entered, quickly and very effectively garnering the attention of anyone he ran into. Everyone collectively recognized there was something big going on, and accompanied Joe back to the Pink Room. Though, as he was rounding everyone up, Joe felt like he was missing someone - besides Sara that is, despite the fact that he’d been in every room. He didn’t have the time for a headcount though, and he just chalked it up to paranoia, making his way back to the Pink Room without another worry.

“Alright Sara, let’s do thi-” Joe began, opening the door to the Pink Room with everyone else in tow, but was surprised and cut himself off when Sara was already looking straight at him, and was startled enough to yelp when he opened the door. They stared at each other for a fleeting moment, before they composed themselves.  
“Uhh…” Joe started. “Sorry, Sara. If I’d known that would have scared you I would’ve just given you a warning…” he apologised, sheepishly.  
“No, that’s alright, Joe…” she responded calmly, before walking out of sight of Joe and his entourage, disappearing without another word behind the newly opened door.  
“Huh?” Joe asked. “Where’re you going, Sara?” Confused, he followed behind her, and was surprised to see the thing Sara was trying to look at.  
Curious about what was happening, the others decided to take a look as well.

“Has… anyone else seen this notice before?” Sara asked.

“...hey! ...everyone!” A familiar voice said, in the distance. Sou’s attention was grabbed by it, but he was also busy checking out the laptop in front of him. He didn’t know why it was here, but it was definitely a clue. Considering he only stumbled across this room by accident, he considered this quite the lucky find, and mentally patted himself on the back for his discovery. Or, at least, it would be a lucky find, if he could actually use the clue he’s found. Unfortunately, the laptop he had come across was protected by a password, and he had no clue what it was. 

He was running through multiple possibilities in his head, but without something to narrow his ideas down, he would be here all day, and the laptop didn’t have unlimited battery. In fact, it suddenly occurred to him he had no access to a laptop charger here, and he quickly turned it off to conserve power, closing the lid. If he had any other bright ideas on what the password could be, he would briefly turn it back on to try a couple passwords before turning it off again, but for the time being he’d have to ponder this all in the dark, accompanied only by the dim light of the desk lamp.  
“...other parts!” The distant voice had called out again. He wondered what all the commotion was about. Couldn’t they just keep it down? He was trying to think here. 

Maybe it was a… date? If that was the case, assuming it didn’t include a year, he could just try all three hundred and sixty six days of the year - including February the 29th - and he’d _eventually_ get it, but that seemed like quite the time and power investment towards a potentially fruitless endeavour.  
A name, then? But there’s a huge amount of names in the world, and he didn’t know all of them. Just guessing at the password might not work - he desperately needed another clue here, but he wasn’t about to give up on the laptop.

He heard a lot of footsteps just outside, followed by a door opening. If he had to guess, people were going into the Pink Room right about now. Admittedly, he _was_ pretty curious as to what was going on out there. He’d have to come back and give this laptop another crack later, but he knew he needed an extra head to work on this, and he knew just the right person to ask. That could wait, though.

He waited for the footsteps to die down, taking that as the sign that everyone was already in the Pink Room, using that as his window of opportunity to quietly and discreetly exit the hidden room he was in.  
Sure enough, the hallway was empty, but the door to the garish room was wide open. He quietly walked in for himself, hoping to slide into a crowd unnoticed, but found that harder to do when no one appeared to be inside. He entered anyway, taking a look around, only to hear a voice from behind the door, that nearly made him jump out of his skin.

“Hey!” it said. “Where have you been?” Joe gave him a confused stare. Seeing Sou coming into the room abruptly like this totally reminded him. Sou was the one who he couldn’t find when he was rounding up everyone - maybe his subconscious mind just assumed he was conveniently hidden behind Q-taro or something. 

Sou was caught very off guard, not expecting to have been immediately caught coming into the room like this, much less being called out for being away from the group at the same time. His mouth moved faster than his mind, and he spat out the first thing that came to him.

“Oh… just found a hidden room.” he said, in such a manner that it was hard to believe him, despite the fact that it was actually true.  
“Sou…! You’re okay!” Sara exclaimed, seemingly not paying any mind to Sou’s admission of where he was.  
“That’s-that’s my line!” he said, with a smile. “Good, so everyone’s safe… but what are you guys doing, exactly?” From his point of view, seeing eleven people hiding behind a door was a strange sight indeed. Were they trying to jump him, or something?

“Come and take a look at this, Sou.” Sara said, gesturing to the side of the door he couldn’t see from this angle. He walked over to take a look at what everyone was getting all worked up about, but only found himself more confused.

There was a piece of paper pinned to the back of the door. It occured to Sou that whenever he entered this room, he had always left the door open, as he planned to leave it right after, which would explain why he hadn’t seen it before.  
“...The Second Trial…” he muttered aloud to himself.  
The paper detailed how the doll’s revival would begin a practice round for the ‘Main Game’. A majority vote would be held, and the person with the most votes would be sacrificed.  
“Sac-sacrificed…?” Sou muttered under his breath, prompting a few members of the group to nod. Sou continued reading the notice. Turns out, as this would be a practice round, if everybody’s votes came to a draw, the game would be considered forfeit.

“In that case… nobody would die…” he muttered once more, taking in the information.  
“Right.” Sara affirmed. “It’s a good thing we saw this notice when we did.”  
“Quite right, Miss Sara.” Mishima said, within the crowd. “I’d hate to imagine what would’ve happened if we failed to heed this warning.”  
Everyone’s attention slowly shifted over to the doll parts on the other side of the room.  
“The note mentioned the ‘doll’s revival’...” Sou muttered. “Seems safe to assume it means us putting it back together.”

“Guess there’s nothing left to do, then.” Keiji said, walking towards the dismantled doll. “You should stand back, just in case.” He picked up the doll’s head in one hand, placing it onto the doll’s torso with a satisfying click as it snapped into place. He skillfully attached the other body parts as well, and it didn’t take long before the doll was whole. He took a few steps back after he was done, and everyone waited with bated breath. 

Moments passed, with nothing happening. Everyone glanced at each other, then back to the doll, expecting something to happen.  
“Uh…” someone began, before their thought was interrupted by a more pressing matter.  
“...Wait.” Q-taro interrupted, noticing something. “You smell somethin’?”  
Smell something everyone did, as they all started to notice a strange smell in the air. A white mist was steadily pouring out of a vent in the room, being inhaled by everyone present, and engulfing their view.

“Hey… is it just me, or is the room going white!?” Joe rhetorically asked, beginning to panic at the prospect that whatever he was currently inhaling might do serious damage to him internally.  
“It’s gas…!” Keiji pointed out, which served quite well to cause more people to start panicking.  
“Could-could it be poison?” Sou asked, a genuine trace of fear in his voice. “Not good. We need to leave the room!” Though, it was already too late. The white gas had completely blocked everyone’s vision, and they could only stumble over each other in their simultaneous hastes to get out of the room. No one could even see past their own hands, and there was no longer anywhere to run.  
Thoughts of fear and despair flooded everyone’s minds as they tried to avoid breathing as much as possible and tripped over each other’s feet.

However, a calm voice echoed throughout the room.  
“It’s not poison gas, everyone, so please relax.” The alien voice reverberated throughout the room, catching everyone’s attention. The mist had started to subside, clean air circulating throughout the room once more, and everyone’s sight slowly beginning to return to them. In place of where the doll they had reassembled had laid, a well dressed woman stood instead, with an uncomfortably warm smile painted on her face. Everyone stared at her wordlessly, shocked and wondering where she had come from. There’s no way a doll could’ve just come to life and stood up, right?

The woman softly laughed to herself, though something about her tone felt strangely menacing. “Good day.” she said, projecting her voice about the room, in an attempt to give herself an aura of superiority.  
“H… huh?” Joe sputtered out, incredibly confused at the nature of what he was seeing right now. “Y… you’re… the doll!?” he asked her, incredulously.

The woman giggled, and held one of her gloved hands up to her mouth as she did. “Yes, I am the doll that you just rescued.” she explained, only providing more questions for everyone present. “Advanced, am I not?”  
Reko stared at the woman, at a complete loss for words. She made multiple confused sounds in her attempts to create a coherent sentence, before shouting her finished attempt. “The hell’s goin’ on here!?”

The doll giggled to herself more, seemingly amused by Reko’s complete bewilderment. “As it happens, I have revived to tell you what is happening, and support you through the trials and tribulations to come.”  
Reko took multiple steps backwards, throwing her hands up at the woman.  
“Stay away from me, you creepy-ass puppet!”

Despite Reko’s insult and desperation, the doll-like woman was largely unphased. “Settle down, now. There’s nothing to fear, you see? I will offer you all support.”  
Her gaze flitted from person to person in the room, seeing many frightened faces. Though, a certain one interested her the most. Her eyes subtly locked with Sou’s, sending a petrifying chill down his spine, causing him to find himself unable to look away from her, despite how much he may have wanted to. His mouth was left frozen slightly agape, yet he found himself unable to speak a word when subjected to her paralyzing gaze.

The woman just sighed, and looked elsewhere. “Is there no one who can speak calmly here?” she asked, amused with everyone’s reactions.  
“I’ll ask.” Sara took a step forward with a skeptical gait, facing down the self-proclaimed doll. “Just what are you?” she asked, firmly.  
“Tell the friendly policeman too.” Keiji said, perfectly calm. “I’m not really following here…”

The pale woman nodded with a smile, willing to comply. “Then we’ll begin with my introduction… My name is Sue Miley - the Laughing Doll.” she explained. “I am the doll who will guide you on this floor.”  
Keiji and Sara looked at her expectantly, and so she continued with her explanation. “My master has instructed me to guide you brave souls, who have already overcome several trials, to the Main Game.”

Keiji frowned at that information. “Your master…” he began. “...in other words, you’re on the side of the kidnappers.”  
Miley opened her mouth to speak, but Joe ended up shouting over her. “So-so you’re our enemy! Don’t even try and say you’re not!”  
Joe’s rude interjection merely cracked her up further, finding it difficult to speak through her laughter. However, everyone else didn’t find the situation very amusing.

“Stop laughin’, asshole!” Reko exclaimed, having gained the confidence to stand up to her. “You wanna die!?” she threatened, pointing wildly at the laughing doll. Miley gradually calmed down, and without an ounce of fear, responded to Reko. “Ah… I’d rather not.” She shook her head while still smiling. “I wouldn’t like to be torn up again.” She raised a gloved hand to point a finger to the sky, in a ‘eureka’ gesture. “Oh, I know. I’ll just have to tear you up first!”  
Reko’s expression immediately turned to one of fear, and all the confidence she built collapsed. “T-tear us up!?” she stuttered out, terrified at the prospect.  
Miley nodded at her rhetorical question. “As a warning, yes.” she said, while chuckling.

An electronic beep sound echoed throughout the room, followed by the sounds of something vibrating. Everyone’s heads turned towards the origin of the sounds, and saw Joe, hands clasped to his neck and wearing a confused expression.  
“H-huh? My collar’s vibrating…”  
His confusion served to fuel Miley’s laughter, but she attempted to keep it at least somewhat under control. “Anyone will do, if it’ll keep you quiet.”  
With one hand still on his neck, Joe pointed a shaky finger towards Miley. “W-what… what did you do?” he asked her, his voice beginning to waver.  
“What indeed?” she asked back, seemingly in an attempt to evade the question. However, Joe wasn’t having it.

“Hey! Answer me!” he shouted, desperate to know what was happening to him.  
Miley threw her arms up in a shrugging motion. “Oh, very well…” She smiled directly at the terrified high-school student, and spoke very casually. “I’m just making your collar explode.” Her words made Joe’s blood run cold, and he immediately brought his other hand to his neck as well.  
“H-huh? No… no way! Get-get this thing off of-! **Get it off!** ” he desperately shouted, clawing and grabbing at his collar with his hands, but it was on far too tightly. The beeping noise resonating from his collar began to speed up to a fevered pitch, until abruptly coming to an end. 

Joe closed his eyes tight in anticipation, yet nothing happened.  
Moments passed. He slowly opened his eyes to see everyone looking at him with a fearful expression with the exception of Miley, who was busy cackling to herself at the other end of the room.  
“...That was a lie, of course.” she admitted. “Did you enjoy it?”  
“A… A lie…” His knees giving out, Joe collapsed on the floor, breathing out the entire contents of his lungs in a mixture of relief and disbelief.

“That collar can’t actually explode, after all.” Miley admitted.  
“You… piece of shit!” Reko shouted at the woman, her body threatening to shake with rage.  
That sent Miley over the edge. She began laughing with gusto, causing Reko to get even more angry with her, causing Miley to begin laughing harder, and repeat in a vicious cycle. She attempted to talk back, but found it difficult to make a coherent sentence through all of her laughter, and eventually just gave up. 

“...She’s out of her mind, meow…” Gin solemnly stated, shaking his head.  
Miley’s laughing did eventually subside - mostly - and she allowed herself to explain something to everyone present.  
“Ah… Pardon me. What I’m about to explain… is in regards a fight you must take for your own destiny. You will soon undergo a great trial to escape outside.” Everyone intently listened to her speech, hoping she wouldn’t start losing herself laughing again.

“As it has been prior, the superior will live, and the inferior will die. It is far from easy. One among you will certainly die. And the one to die will be chosen by your own majority vote.”  
People exchanged glances. This sounded like the Second Trial the notice on the door talked about. If that was the case, then they definitely had one up on Miley already.

“You will select the most insufferable, hated, and most acceptable person to have die.” she explained, but it would seem people had other ideas.  
“Stop talkin’ nonsense!” Q-taro shouted. “As if we’re gonna do somethin’ like that!”  
Miley didn’t seem phased. “If you don’t wish to do this, then by all means, all of you could starve here instead.”  
“Just laying it on the table, huh?” Keiji remarked, calmly.

Miley looked about the room. With the exception of maybe Q-taro, everyone seemed quite calm about this. In fact, even Q-taro’s emotional state seems more of pure anger than of fear or surprise.  
“Well… anyway, I have something good to hand out, everyone!” Miley gave everyone in the room what appeared to be an electronic tablet, having stashed away twelve of them in the room somewhere.  
“These are voting tablets.” she explained. “Let us test out their functionality with some actual use. But first, allow me to explain their purpose.” she started.  
“When voting, if you know who voted for who, it turns into a quarrel, doesn’t it? Thus, by voting with these tablets, you won’t know who made each vote! So, as practice, how about voting for whoever?”

That word - practice. Everyone looked at each other, knowing what they had to do.  
“...Alright.” Keiji began. “Let’s just each vote for ourselves. That should be allowed, right?” The others nodded in approval, touching their tablets to cast their votes.  
Miley tried to hide her scowl. She supposed they must’ve seen the notice pinned to the door, despite the fact that the door was currently wide open. She’d just have to wait until the Main Game itself to see any bloodshed.

Everyone’s votes were cast, and gradually revealed. Despite the fact that someone could’ve easily went against the plan and voted for someone else, sentencing them to death, they had absolutely no reason to, and in the end, everyone had only a single vote each.

Miley forced herself to smile. “Ah. It would appear everyone’s a bit... indecisive.”  
“Wahaha…” Keiji laughed to himself lightly. “Guess so.”  
“This is… surely a rare case, but, regardless, I suppose you’ve all learned how the voting tablets work, yes?” Miley asked, hoping at least one person would say they didn’t understand.  
However, everyone else nodded in affirmation.  
“Fantastic.” she said, bitterly. “Then I suppose there isn’t any need for a re-do…”  
“Are you done yet?” Sara asked Miley, with an unwavering amount of confidence in both her voice and her stance.  
“Yes, I… suppose I am.” she regretfully affirmed. “I’ll be waiting, then. At the grounds of the Main Game...” Everyone’s stares burned a hole into her back as she shamefully and slowly exited the room.

“...And stay out!” Reko shouted, after Miley was safely out of earshot - though Reko's shouting could probably be heard reverberating throughout the entire facility anyway. “I can’t stand her! What makes her think she can force us to do shit like this!?”  
“She can’t, meow!” Gin stated loudly. “There’s no way we’re doing that Main Game thing she was talking about, woof!”  
“Yeah!” Q-taro agreed. “I ain’t just gonna lie down and take that!” Everyone was getting seriously worked up about this, and they began exchanging words about their refusal to take part in this, but one person was more quiet than the others.

Sou had been standing still without speaking ever since Miley was ‘revived’. The mere presence of her left him completely petrified, and his head swimming with troubling thoughts. Everyone else’s voices were beginning to fade, as Sou found himself unable to focus on them, and in their place, he could only hear his own. He was taken back to his First Trial, unable to tear his mind away from the events that took place there, where he first met Miley, and where he had to abandon everything. He felt his head being grasped with two hands, and he violently tried to shake them away with wild abandon, but the suffocating feeling only got worse.  
“Sou…” he heard a voice purr into his ear, but he didn’t want to listen to it. However, it only repeated itself, becoming louder and firmer.  
“Are you listening to me, Sou?” No. He wasn’t. He desperately tried to fight back against what had his heart seized in a vice grip, but found himself unable to escape from it alone. Just as he was about to give in, he heard another voice speak.

“Sou!” a feminine voice said, causing Sou to become shaken from his stupor, snapping back to reality. He raised his head and came face to faces with a certain concerned professor and his former student, but decided to take a cautious step back from them, considering them to be too close for his comfort. He nervously glanced around the room - apart from the three of them, no one else was here.

“Are you... quite all right, Sou?” Mishima asked, a concerned and genuine frown painted on his face.  
“H-huh?” Sou asked. “Uh, yeah... Just had… an itch.” he said, not at all willing to tell them what was actually on his mind, but it was clear to them there was a lot more he wasn’t letting on.  
“That looked like a pretty bad itch…” Nao muttered, not buying it, but deciding not to push it anymore.

Wanting to change the subject, Sou decided to ask a question of his own. “So, uh… where did everyone go?” He hadn’t noticed anyone leave the room whatsoever, with the exception of Miley.  
“Everyone decided to resume their investigation.” Mishima explained. “Though, we noticed your... distress, and we decided to stay.”  
“I’m fine.” Sou quickly appended.  
“Of course.” Mishima said, understanding Sou didn’t want to talk about it.  
“Um…” Nao began, prompting Sou to glance in her direction. “Would you like to investigate with us, Sou?”

“H-huh?” That caught Sou off guard, not expecting such a proposition. He was planning on going back to the hidden room, though, come to think of it, maybe it would be better if he wasn’t alone right now.  
“An excellent idea, Miss Nao. We were about to investigate the kitchen - would you like to join us, Sou?” Mishima added.  
“The kitchen? I thought you couldn’t get in there…” Sou said, skeptically, but Nao just nodded in response.  
“That was true…” Mishima began. “...until Miss Nao discovered the key.” He looked down at his bubbly former student with a proud smile. “So, what do you say?” he asked, both Mishima and Nao awaiting Sou’s answer.  
“...Well…" Sou began, allowing the duo to hang onto his extended word in anticipation of what his answer would be while he thought this offer over, some. He didn't exactly know these two very well, and wasn't totally sure if he could trust them, but if they were just investigating the kitchen together... "...if I have to.” he finished, with his usual brand of unreadable smile.  
“Excellent. Let us be off, then.” Mishima responded.

The unusual trio exited the pink room, glad to be out of that strange place, and re-entered the cafeteria, where they found themselves alone. Nao walked over to the kitchen door, fishing around in her apron for the key. She quickly produced it, and effortlessly slid the key into the lock, twisting it and unlocking the door. She pulled down on the handle and pushed, the door opening as expected.  
The three of them went inside, taking in the sight of the previously unexplorable room. Considering the large window on the wall, it’s nothing they weren’t able to see before, but it was still good to get a hands on investigation going at least. Nao and Mishima began investigating various things on the cabinets and counters, but Sou was interested in what appeared to be a very eye catching bright blue box in there.

He walked over to the box, gripped the handles on it, and pulled it open. It seemed to be a refrigerator, but it was currently empty. Despite how eye catching it was, it didn’t appear to be a clue of any kind after all. Sou sighed, pushing the doors of the blue refrigerator shut - but as he did, he happened to look up.  
It didn’t seem odd when looking in from the cafeteria, as it was impossible to look at the object above the refrigerator from this angle, but something seemed strange about it.

It was a large grey box affixed to the ceiling, but when viewed from below, one could see a large opening in the bottom, giving the viewer access to the completely dark void inside. That got Sou curious.  
“Hey… what do you guys think this thing is for?” he asked the other two people in the room, prompting them to walk over to take a look.  
“Is that not for ventilation?” Mishima asked, his curiosity similarly peaked.  
“Would you need something this big just for ventilation?” Nao quizzed, though she was having trouble thinking of anything else it could be for.  
“Besides…” Sou began. “If you had a ventilation system, wouldn’t you normally put it over something like an oven instead of a refrigerator?” he said, skeptical about if that was really what this was for.

“Hmm…” Sou looked back up into the object of question. He only saw one way to solve this mystery.  
“I’m gonna get a closer look.” he said, carefully climbing onto the counter in order to stick his head into it.  
“Please-please be careful!” Nao exclaimed, hoping Sou wouldn’t fall off and break his ankle or something similarly humiliating.  
“I’ll be fine.” Sou reassured her, while ducking down in order to clamber atop the blue refrigerator. Once both of his feet were firmly upon it, he allowed himself to stand up straight, slowly extending his legs and rising up. He was soon fully standing, causing his entire upper body to disappear into the object above - Nao and Mishima were only able to see his shoes and ankles, yet his head hadn’t hit the top of the object yet.

“It’s… very spacious.” Sou said, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. He lifted his arms and tried to move them around to get a feel for the dimensions of the object he was entering. Not too soon after that, a loud bang sounded out, causing Nao and Mishima to jump slightly in surprise.  
“Ow!” Sou exclaimed, hearing an echo of his pained shout. “My-my elbow…” He mentally noted not to forcefully move his arm in that direction again.

“Are you okay!?” Nao shouted, concerned for his safety.  
“Y-yeah…” he muttered. “It’s just really dark in here. I have no idea where I can move… If I just had a light…” he thought aloud, wondering if he could somehow bring the desk lamp from the hidden room over, even though it wouldn’t work without plugging it in.

“Perhaps I can fetch Miss Sara?” Mishima proposed.  
“Miss-miss Sara?” Sou echoed, wondering why Mishima suddenly brought her up.  
“I remember seeing her with a lighter, not too long ago. Assuming it hasn’t changed hands since then, I’m sure she would be willing to allow us to lend it, considering it’s for our investigation.” Mishima explained.  
“Ah… right. Well, you might as well.” Sou said, still pawing around inside of the object he was in.  
“I can come with, Professor Mishima!” Nao offered, but Mishima only shook his head.

“I’ll only be a moment. It would be best if you stayed here to continue your investigation, Miss Nao.” he responded.  
Nao thought about that for a brief moment, but nodded in affirmation. “Okay! I’ll do my best! And I can look after Sou in case he hits his elbow again!”  
“Ahaha…” Sou dolefully laughed. He hadn’t done well to inspire confidence in himself.  
“I’m sure you will, Miss Nao.” Mishima said with a smile, before leaving the kitchen in search of Sara, leaving Sou and Nao by themselves.  
Nao continued to look around various other fixtures in the kitchen while Sou continued to try and get a feel for the object he was inside of.

“Huh?” Nao began, inquisitively. “What’s this...?” she asked, mostly to herself, as Sou was obviously unable to meaningfully comment on anything right now.  
“What’s what? I can’t see anything in here, Miss Nao.” Case in point.  
Nao had found a small box laying on one of the counters, and gingerly held it in her hands, inspecting it well. Seeing that it had a lid, she slowly opened it, and was very shocked by the mere sight of what was inside.  
“Ah! There’s… there’s a knife!” she exclaimed, to Sou’s surprise.

Mishima entered the central hall, and saw quite a surprising sight. A large staircase had appeared in the room, being beheld by multiple people. Included in this bunch were Q-taro, Gin, and Sara, who were busy discussing the staircase. Mishima was admittedly very curious about this new development, but decided it would have to wait, for now. It wouldn’t do well to keep Nao and Sou waiting, and so he stood nearby the group of three, patiently awaiting them to either notice him or wrap up their discussion.

Gin was the first to notice his presence, staring up at Mishima without saying a word. He seemed like he wanted to say something as well, though Mishima wasn’t sure what it could be.  
Q-taro went to ask Gin something, but noticing his attention was elsewhere, followed his gaze to Mishima. Everyone else looking away caused Sara to turn around as well, and soon Mishima had three silent pairs of eyes on him, and he suddenly felt very out of place.

He cleared his throat. “Do excuse me for the intrusion. I just need a moment of your time, Miss Sara.” he explained.  
“Will this need to be a private conversation, Professor Mishima?” she asked, taking a glance at Q-taro and Gin next to her, in-case they’d have to go somewhere else to discuss whatever it was Mishima had to say.  
“Not at all, Miss Sara. I merely wanted to ask - do you still have that lighter you showed me?”  
Sara thought that was a tiny bit suspicious after the conversation she had with Mishima in the bar earlier where he learned of this lighter. She accidentally let her suspicion show in her expression, and Mishima hurried to clear up her doubts.

“I need a source of light for my investigation.” he hastily explained. “And the only portable light source I remembered seeing may currently be on your person.”  
“Oh, in that case, of course.” Sara reached into her breast pocket, bringing out a small lighter and presenting it to the good professor.  
“Thank you, Miss Sara.” he said, taking it gingerly from her hand. “I’ll be sure to return it as soon as I am finished using it.” He gave her a smile, and held the lighter safely in his closed hand.  
Sara would’ve found it hard not to smile back at Mishima’s show of gratitude. “I wish you luck in your investigation.”  
“And luck to you as well, Miss Sara.” Mishima parted ways from the group, heading back to the kitchen as the trio in the central hall resumed their discussion of the mysterious staircase. 

“I have brought the li-” Mishima began, as he opened the door to the kitchen, but he cut himself off upon seeing the concerning sight inside.  
Nao was clutching a box in her hand, with the lid it was previously contained with held in her other hand. Sou had crouched down on the refrigerator to see what she was doing, and they had both looked to Mishima as he entered, both wearing worried expressions - though Nao’s expression was a lot more so. Though the professor couldn’t see what was in the box, clearly it had to be something concerning enough to have Nao so riled up.

“P-professor…!” Nao cried out, looking for support and a guiding hand in how to manage her discovery.  
“Please calm down, Miss Nao…” Mishima stated, calmly. “What in the world has you so worried?” he asked her, hoping she would be coherent enough to respond.  
“Aah… Ooh…” she tried to speak, but just made concerned sounds.  
“...She found a knife.” Sou casually explained, with Nao feverishly nodding towards him.  
“A knife…!?” Mishima asked. “I suppose that’s not an all too unexpected find in a kitchen. Could you give it to me, please, Miss Nao?” He slowly and methodically approached Nao, and she held out the box towards him. There was definitely a knife inside - and it appeared quite sharp. Mishima carefully took the box from her, placing it down onto a counter where it belonged, and Nao instantly began to calm down.

“Thank you, Miss Nao. This was quite the discovery you’ve made.” he told her.  
“...H-huh?” What does he mean by that, Nao wondered?  
“Now that we know of this knife, we can make sure it’s safely contained. Though I’m sure no one here would use it for anything unscrupulous, it’s best to be as safe as possible in this situation.” he explained to her. The thought comforted her a little - considering the mere sight of the knife made her panic, it was good that no one could use it for harm now.

“...So, anyway...” Sou began, changing the topic, and looking at Mishima. “Did you get the lighter?” he asked, eager to investigate.  
“Ah, yes. Here you go, Sou.” Mishima placed the lighter into Sou’s outstretched palm. “I will need to return it to Miss Sara at some point, but for now, it's ours to use.”  
“That’s fine.” Sou said, bringing the lighter close to himself and standing back up, being engulfed by the darkness once more. He fumbled with the lighter in the dark, and it occurred to him that he should’ve maybe turned it on while he could actually see, but he eventually managed to flick it on, a small dancing flame appearing with a click, guided by his hand. Though the light from the fire was small, it was infinitely better than what he had before, so he was willing to deal with it.

He slowly waved the lighter around in the darkness, hoping to make some kind of discovery to make things worth it.  
And quite the discovery he made. He managed to make out a series of ledges thanks to the lighter, running his free hand across them to investigate.  
“What did you find, Sou?” Nao asked, as she was only able to stare at the back of Sou’s ankles, and had no idea what he was doing in there.  
Sou extended his arm further, seeing that the ledges continued to go up.  
He raised the lighter up, and his eyes widened as he finally realised what he had managed to discover.

“There’s a staircase!” Sou exclaimed.  
“A… a staircase? In a place such as this?” Mishima asked, skeptically, though it wasn’t as if he distrusted Sou’s word implicitly.  
“Why would there be a staircase here…?” Nao asked Sou, but it wasn’t as if he had a real answer.  
“I… I don't know! I just found it here…” Sou thought for a few moments, but decided he couldn’t just stop investigating here. He lifted one leg, placing his foot firmly on the first step and hoisting himself up.

“S-Sou!?” Nao exclaimed, seeing his feet disappear into the darkness.  
“Do you really plan on ascending the staircase?” Mishima asked, concerned for Sou’s safety.  
“Well… I can’t just _not_ go up a hidden staircase.” Sou responded. “There could be something huge up here.”  
“...Hrm…” Mishima mumbled. “Be that as it may… the fact that we don’t know what is beyond there is the precise issue.”  
“I’ll be fine.” Sou stated, with an undeserved amount of confidence. “If I sense any trouble, I can just come straight back down, okay?”

Nao and Mishima looked at each other, then back towards the object Sou was completely inside of.  
“Umm… Maybe we should… go with you?” Nao suggested. “If you’re not alone, then-”  
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Sou interrupted. “There’s only one lighter. If the three of us had to share one tiny light, that could be trouble.” he pointed out.  
“Oh…” Nao muttered, with no other bright ideas to share.

The sounds of Sou’s footsteps began to sound from the object above the refrigerator as he started ascending the staircase.  
“I suppose there isn’t any changing your mind, then, Sou.” Mishima stated, not entirely expecting a response.  
“Can we really let him do this, Professor?” Nao asked Mishima, nervously.  
“I don’t believe we have much of a choice. However… I am sure Sou will return safely.”  
“Really?” Nao was definitely not as certain about the prospect.  
“Sou appears to be quite the resourceful type. So long as he keeps his promise that he’ll return whenever he needs to, I don’t believe there is any need to worry.” he said, giving Nao a reassuring smile.  
Nao looked from Mishima, to the place Sou had disappeared to, and back to Mishima again. “O… okay.” she said, deciding to trust in Sou for now, though she still did so with an uncertain mind.

Sou was rising up the staircase, making sure he knew where he was stepping in the darkness. If he stumbled now, he might fall all the way back down, and that was quite a disturbing concept.  
The air in the hidden passageway tasted quite stale, but Sou noted there wasn’t much dust around, despite how remote this location was. It was lucky he ever found it at all, really.  
The staircase went up for quite a while, but just as Sou’s legs were starting to ache, he noticed that they came to an end. He waved Sara’s lighter in front of him once more, making out the object that was in front of him, with the help of his other hand as a guiding force. He felt a cold, metal door handle, and clasped his hand around it.

It suddenly occurred to him that there was a very good chance this door in front of him was locked. If that was the case, he supposed he would just have to walk all the way back down, with little extra information. In fact, if they went this far to hide the staircase, there was probably a good chance this door was, in fact, locked. But regardless, he clasped the handle with his free hand, and pushed the handle down, attempting to shove the door open.  
To his surprise, the door actually opened, with quite the force behind it, threatening to throw Sou onto the floor on the other side of it.  
However, he let go in time, and regained his balance. He looked around the strange, dark room he was in - where in the world was he now?

It looked like a tornado had gone through here. There were rocks everywhere, stacked atop one another to create the walls of the room.  
While observing the stone boulders, his gaze was grabbed by a collection of bright, red lights to the side of the room, illuminating things in the immediate area with a red glow. Sou got closer to the lights, as the red light bathed his body in its glow. It originated from a pretty heavy duty looking computer system, with a monitor above it. It seemed pretty impressive, Sou thought - he’d never really seen anything like this before.  
As he walked away to investigate elsewhere in the room, Sou tripped over something in the middle of the room, cursing as he fell to the ground in an embarrassing manner, though at least no one was around to see it. The fall had caused Sara's lighter to go out, and he had to attempt to light it once more in the darkness. Once the flame had been reignited, he tried to right the object he had tipped with haste, not wanting to leave anything out of place lest anyone knew he was here. He got the distinct feeling he wasn’t supposed to be here, after all.

On closer inspection, it seemed that Sou had toppled a comfortable looking office chair, made of a rather plush material that would no doubt make for a wonderful sitting experience. Though, Sou didn’t have a lot of time to laze around right now. He continued investigating the room, and he noticed some light shining in past one of the stacks of rocks in the room, and he decided that was where he had to go next.  
He flicked off the lighter and tried to squeeze past the rocks, and thanks to his small stature, he managed to make it through with minimal troubles - that gap was big enough that even Q-taro could get through if he tried hard enough, and that guy was a giant.

He exited the dark, rock ridden room, and found himself in a very dilapidated hallway. The walls were falling apart, planks of wood laid splintered and fallen onto the ground, and the smell of plaster and sawdust lingered undeniably in the air.  
Sou was really beginning to feel uneasy. This corridor felt like it came straight out of a horror movie - whatever happened here, it couldn’t have been anything good. For a moment, he considered turning tail and heading back to Nao and Mishima, but he had a duty to investigate here. There was a light at the end of the corridor that illuminated it all throughout, and he decided that’s naturally the next place he should head.

He walked throughout the destroyed hallway, his hands firmly in his pockets as he nervously glanced around. He took care not to step on any of the fallen planks of wood, lest they break further and show signs of disturbance to anyone who may come through here in the future.  
He made it to the end of the corridor, walking through a doorway into a decadent looking lobby. The complete change of scenery surprised Sou - he just went from a deteriorating hallway into a beautiful looking lounge, with many comfortable looking chairs, and a generally well-maintained atmosphere. The room also contained the first window he’d seen since coming here, the beautiful midday sun beaming in. Though, currently, the sun only illuminated something very worrying in the middle of the room, looking his way.

Overall, he was certainly very shocked at the place he had found himself in, but it was hard to tell who was more surprised.  
Sou, or the person he had just accidentally locked eyes with.


	4. Scared Stiff

Six pairs of rowing paddles batted relentlessly against the ocean’s waves, doing battle with that which threatened to overturn the boats they belonged to. Though, with the skilled yet very unusual group of sailors in command of each boat, there was very little risk of that - especially considering such an event can’t even happen in Minecraft. 

The ragtag survivalist group had been sailing across the vast ocean for quite a while now, without any land in sight. Though they had sailed past underwater shrines and shipwrecks, not one of the adventurers dared to venture that far down into the water in search of what could very well turn out to be a chest full of poisonous potatoes or something similarly useless. If they weren’t careful, they could easily find themselves with no fast route to the surface, and it would be impossible for their comrades to save them once they began drowning.

Of course, a certain somebody would’ve quite liked to see that, but unfortunately for him, he wasn’t the one in control of their every move, for the most part. He could do a few things here and there to mix things up, such as his stunt the night before that got him into a tiny bit of trouble with the doll by his side, but he didn’t care about that part. Little inconveniences like that wouldn’t do much to a crew like this, and that was what he hated the most about them.

The quietly self-appointed leaders of the group, especially. Were it not for them, the team would doubtlessly have fallen apart and been completely wiped out on the first night. With some commanding the build effort, and another doing his part to save the weaklings, they had to exert a lot of effort to get through the first night, sure, but that resourcefulness meant they were sure to get a fortified base up in no time, as soon as they hit shore somewhere survivable. And as soon as that happened, Ranger’s “little pranks” wouldn't be nearly as cataclysmic, unless he got creative.

Speaking of, sights of sand and grass began to grace the team’s vision.  
“There’s land, meow!” one sailor shouted with enthusiasm, setting a course straight there. The others followed close behind, their small navy preparing to land at the shore of the new land they discovered.  
As they got closer, they saw many trees begin to render in - this was quite the find. The continent they had discovered contained a bountiful forest, right by the shore, with a variety of biomes not too far off. Compared to the incredibly harsh conditions they were faced with before, it was as if the team had just stumbled upon a gate to heaven itself.

The first boat gently collided with the sandy shores of the wonderful land, and the diminutive sailor climbed out, being the first one to step out onto the golden sands before turning back to his half-empty boat as he glanced over to his right in the real world, seeing Reko looking at her keyboard with a confused expression.  
“You have to press the left shift key to get out, Big Sis Reko, woof.” he explained to her.  
“Oh.” Reko pressed the left shift key and her Minecraft avatar stood up, walking over to Gin’s Minecraft avatar on the beach. Gin’s Minecraft avatar began swatting at the boat with an empty hand until it disappeared, leaving behind a small, rotating boat icon. Gin moved forward to collect it, storing it in his inventory for later use.

The other boats came in quickly, everyone else disembarking and packing up their vessels safely in their inventories. People began to lightly explore the new lands they had discovered, but were careful not to venture too far from each other.  
“This is perfect…” Sou muttered. “Somewhere like this is just what I was looking for.”  
The nearby bounty of resources from various different biomes certainly made this land an incredibly ideal place to create a home.  
Without being told, the newer players had already started gathering wood from trees, having easily understood just how important wood was going to be from here on out.  
“Let’s not make the same mistake as last time.” Sara began, sagefully.  
“Quite right.” Mishima agreed. “A shelter should be our top priority.”

People found a flat section of land nearby accessible water and trees, and began building there. Now unrestricted by a strict time limit, and with access to a very large supply of wood, their creative energy was truly set free, and with the combined efforts of everyone, they were beginning to create quite the good looking Minecraft house, with depth and a variety of decorative pieces.

The more artistically challenged sort - such as Alice and Q-taro - did the work of gathering materials and supplying the builders with them, allowing peak work efficiency. As Alice was gathering materials, he noticed a cave entrance bored into the ground close-by. He considered this quite the lucky find, and was sure he could at least find some iron down there later.  
Other materials such as stone and stone-related building materials such as granite and andesite were also collected, along with some sand for smelting into glass. 

Though it wasn’t the grandest construction project ever - they still did have limited variety in their block choices, and there was only one floor - the house ended up completed before night fell, this time.  
The sun threatened to begin setting, - they had already spent quite a bit of their time sailing - which prompted everyone to enter the house, which had torches and general essential appliances such as furnaces and a crafting table relocated inside. Though, it did occur to some that they were short something else very essential.  
“Uh… we don’t have any beds…” Joe pointed out, looking towards quite a barren side of the room. Even though setting your spawn point is a fruitless endeavour in Hardcore Mode, that wasn’t the only use a Minecraft bed had. Were they to collect twelve of them - and assuming that Ranger and Safalin would cooperate for the sake of fairness and have their Minecraft avatars sleep as well - they would be able to skip the perilous nights. But, as is…

“Guess there’s nothing for it.” Sou said. “We’ll just have to wait things out here. At least it’s safe.” He was right in that regard - it was certainly the safest option, but someone else scoffed at the idea.  
“Wait things out!?” Alice asked, incredulously. “What a waste of time! At times like these, it is only logical to go mining! If you’re below the surface, the night is inconsequential!” Though, Alice was also right. Everyone looked to each other, wondering what the best course of action was here.

“Uh…” Joe began, and Alice looked to him confidently, sure that he would back him up on this. “I dunno… I think I had way too much excitement last night already…”  
“...O-oh.” Alice looked down, a disappointed frown on his face.  
“I just don’t think we’re prepared.” Sou casually said, in an attempt to dismiss Alice’s idea.

Everyone else mutually agreed with those against Alice’s idea, and he soon found himself with no supporters. He glanced around the table with pleading eyes just once more, before turning his Minecraft avatar towards the door in a huff.  
“In that case, I’ll merely have to do this by myself!” Stubborn to a fault, he advanced towards the door, and everyone else scrambled to stop him.  
“The hell do you think you’re doing!?” Reko shouted at him. “Can’t you see they’re sayin’ not to go!?”  
“Going out at all was a bad idea…” Keiji began. “But going alone just asks for trouble.”  
“And so would you rather sulk here resourceless for an entire _ten minutes!?_ ” he barked back, and things were turning into a full blown argument.  
Though, no matter how much they tried to talk him down, this was Alice they were dealing with. He had his mind on something, and so making him stay was a fruitless endeavour, and yet it was so dangerous to let him leave alone. It was clear to someone that a different approach was needed.

“This is final. I’m not going to wait around when I can make use of myself!” His Minecraft avatar was just a mere moment away from opening the door and leaving, when a voice most unexpected spoke up.

“Then I’m going with you, meow!”

Everyone’s heads in real life quickly turned to see Gin, who was piercing Alice with a determined stare, his gloveless hands held up in front of his shoulders and clenched into fists.  
“G-Gin!?” Reko exclaimed, shocked at this turn of events.  
“You might be one of the best Minecraft players here, but there’s no way I can let you go alone, woof! If I’m with you, then there’s nothing to fear!” Gin bellowed, his unrivaled passion making itself vibrantly clear in his voice.

Most of everyone was shocked to silence at Gin of all people being the one to suggest this, but Alice merely crossed his arms and regarded the boy.  
“Hmph. I stand by the assertion that I’d be fine by myself, though naturally I’m not going to stop you from coming.” he said, glad that he had at least someone on his side now - even if they were only on his side because they thought he would get himself killed otherwise.  
“We should leave immediately. If we head straight to the cave I discovered right this moment, we will evade walking the surface at night.” Alice advised.  
Gin nodded, understanding the need to move quickly, but as he was about to leave, there was just one more interruption.

“Wait, Gin.” Sara said, prompting him to turn his head to her. “Are you really sure about this?” She sounded uncertain, but on the flipside, Gin seemed very confident as he nodded.  
“Don’t worry about me, Big Sis Sara! You don’t need to protect me in this world, meow! Now it’s my turn to protect someone, woof!” he said. Even though he was wearing a mask, it was clear from his eyes that he was smiling at her.  
There was a sense of finality to his words, and Sara decided it was best to allow him to go. She decided to back off, take a deep breath, and watch as Gin and Alice’s Minecraft avatars left the safe haven of the expertly constructed shelter, as Gin’s avatar waved goodbye by punching at the air in front of him before leaving.

Naturally, Alice led the way, considering he was the one who even knew where the cave was. Gin wasn’t far behind though, and he kept a wary eye on his surroundings. Both adventurers had enough supplies for a successful mining expedition - food and sufficient wood was really all they needed, considering everything else could be found underground.  
Alice weaved throughout trees and tall grass, idly swinging his Minecraft pickaxe at the grass in front of him, for little reason other than to warm up his mining hand. 

He came to an abrupt stop a small way into the forest, and Gin peered at the ground in front of them, seeing a gaping hole, the bottom of which he was unable to see currently, considering there wasn’t any light down there. Alice descended a short distance into the tunnel, seemingly signalling Gin to come down with him, and so Gin followed right after.

The elder explorer began to seal up the only exit they had, placing wood over the gaping entrance to they had just come down from.  
“What are you doing, meow…?” Gin asked, thinking this could be a bit of a waste of wood, however Alice still continued to place down plank after plank.  
“I’m sealing the exit. This way, monsters cannot fall through and catch us off guard.” he explained, with a cocky smirk, as he took joy in being able to exercise his immense intellect onto people.  
Gin nodded along, understanding his reasoning, and assisted in the sealing, finishing the job in mere moments thanks to their combined efforts.

With safety assured, the two descended further into the cave, dropping down onto small rock fronts to safely drop down without taking any fall damage. In a situation such as this, any health loss is serious, after all.  
They placed torches as they went down, which soon allowed the strange duo to see a rock floor at the bottom of the hole they were heading down. Alice was the first to drop down, placing more torches at the area he had landed upon, and surveying the area.  
Things seemed safe, so Gin voluntarily fell a short distance, landing on the space two blocks behind Alice’s avatar. Thankfully, the cave didn’t end here, as both of them could see a tunnel stretching far onwards, and burrowing further into the earth. They would explore that momentarily, but in the meantime, they took a moment to mine some nearby iron ore with their stone pickaxes, finally seizing reliable resources for the team.

This small chunk of iron wouldn’t be enough to supply an entire squad of twelve though, and so the pair forged onwards through the tunnel system, grabbing any nearby iron and coal they found, accumulating quite the large amount over time.  
But, inevitably, their flimsy, makeshift pickaxes wouldn’t last - Gin’s stone pickaxe snapped in two during an attempt to mine some iron, and he sighed.  
“Nothing to it, woof… Guess I should make another, meow…” Gin placed a crafting table into the Minecraft world, and began crafting another stone pickaxe, but he found his action interrupted.

“Hold, Gin Ibushi.” Gin’s gaze shifted, looking up from his laptop to the other side of the table, where Alice was glancing up at him. “We have access to stronger materials. We should take the time to smelt and refine this ore, and craft newer tools with the iron yielded.”  
Alice instead placed a furnace into the Minecraft world, right next to Gin’s crafting table.  
“That’s a good idea, meow.” Gin affirmed, impressed with how on top of things Alice has been. The pair of them loaded their iron and coal into Alice’s furnace, and the iron slowly began smelting.

Really slowly, in fact. Gin rested his head on his palm, with his elbow planted firmly on the table as he watched the furnace’s progress bar slowly crawl to the right. It took an entire thirty seconds for a single iron ingot to be yielded, which Alice quickly, and quite greedily snatched from the furnace. The news of his accomplishment was broadcasted into the game’s chat system, as he had completed an advancement.

Gin didn’t really mind Alice’s greed though - by the end of this they’d both need to have three ingots each, anyway. It was just as he was thinking about this though, that he felt something was off. He hastily closed the furnace interface, and his Minecraft avatar spun around wildly to look at his surroundings. His sense of danger wasn’t unfounded, as he saw a zombie steadily approaching the two - it must’ve spawned further into the cave.

Gin involuntarily let out a startled yelp, making Alice stand at attention.  
“There’s-there’s a zombie, woof!” Gin exclaimed, with panic firmly rooted in his voice. Alice opened his inventory in haste, and scrambled to find something of any use to fight off the undead menace, but found his only weapon to be his nearly broken stone pickaxe.  
“F-fret not! I have this under control!” Alice’s Minecraft avatar swung his pickaxe viciously at the approaching zombie, and it shattered into many fine pieces onto his foe’s head - but at least did some decent damage, while knocking it backwards somewhat. Though, it did leave Alice without a weapon, and without a plan.

“Ah… Hrmm… Oh! I’ve got it! If we lack weaponry, we must merely use our fists! With the two of us, and the one of him, we can easily…” Alice trailed off upon seeing what laid behind the zombie. More and more were pouring out of the darkness, making Alice realise his plan was very unlikely to work. A million thoughts raced through his mind - perhaps he should just box himself in a small chamber using cobblestone and burrow out through the floor using his hands? 

But, as he was considering this cowardly strategy, Gin had decided to take real action. An impenetrable row of cobblestone was being placed by Gin’s Minecraft avatar in the zombie’s paths, in such a way that the impending zombies could neither climb over, or walk under it. It was truly a flawless technique, and in one simple defensive action, Gin had saved himself and Alice.

“Gin… Gin Ibushi!” Alice said, in complete awe, however Gin wasn’t finished. His Minecraft avatar ran to the furnace that had been previously placed down, producing two iron ingots and combining them with a stick in the crafting table to create a deadly iron sword. He turned back to the zombies, who were fruitlessly bashing themselves against the cobblestone barrier he had created for them. 

In a heroic movement, Gin swung his sword at the gap between the floor and the barrier, tearing through the necrotic ankle flesh of the helpless zombies, very quickly and efficiently cutting them down, and causing their bodies to disappear into a fine white mist in front of the two. 

Gin’s Minecraft avatar turned around to face Alice, as Gin’s head raised to look at Alice in the real world, who had a look of surprise and astonishment on his face.  
“Phew… that was scary, meow...” Gin said with a sigh, letting out all the tension he had been building up in his body.  
“S-scary!?” Alice exclaimed. “But you seemed like you had everything under control! How can you claim to have been scared, when you still pulled off something like that!?”

To tell the truth, Alice was petrified. He had spent so long making himself seem tough at the start of all this, but now he had done nothing to back it up. He had allowed Joe to save him as well as everyone else on the first night, and here he stood still in terror as Gin worked hard to save both of their lives.

“I really _was_ scared.” Gin replied, having gone back to looking at the furnace, though occasionally looking around for any signs of danger.  
“But it wasn’t as if I could’ve just sat there and done nothing, woof! It’s okay to be scared, but it’s another thing to not do anything about it, meow!”  
Gin’s words seemed to shake Alice’s very soul. He felt as if he was being directly scolded for being a coward by a twelve year old - one who was completely right, no less.  
“I… I see…” he muttered, remorsefully. He tried to take his mind off it by wordlessly watching the furnace with Gin, and they soon had two iron pickaxes. They decided it would be best to keep moving, and they packed up their furnace and crafting table before proceeding further into the mine, by breaching Gin’s barrier.

Meanwhile, on the surface, the sun was beginning to rise over the horizon, being observed by ten people who were crammed up against the only door in the house. The surface world was bathed in its light, and therefore, so were every monster dwelling the lands. As their bodies combusted into flames and they collapsed onto the ground dead, leaving their drops on the ground, a feeling of peace washed over the group. The outside world was safe to walk once more.

The door was opened, and everyone flooded out, glad to be able to do something after all that waiting - maybe Alice had a point after all. Regardless, a voice spoke up amongst the group, reminding everyone of their priorities.  
“We don’t really have a consistent food source.” Sou pointed out. “If we can set up some farms, we’d have no problem.”  
“Awright!” Q-taro said, enthusiastic and hoping to make some use of himself. “How do we get started?”

Sou thought for a little bit. “Well, for starters, we’ll need some seeds…” His train of thought was momentarily derailed when another voice spoke up.  
“Oh!” Kanna began, looking up to Sou next to her in the real world. “Kanna... found some seeds earlier!” she said, her Minecraft avatar clutching them in her hand.  
“Good.” Sou said. “We can plant that, and grow some wheat.” he finished, though he was unsure if the entire group would be able to just survive on bread.  
“And then with wheat, we can lead animals back here and get meat from them!” Joe added on, dispelling Sou’s worries, and leaving him wondering why he didn’t think of that first.

“I suppose we should split up, then.” Sara suggested. “It’d be more efficient if some of us stayed here to farm, and others went to find animals.”  
“Well, either way…” Sou started. “We’re gonna need at least one piece of wheat before we can bring animals home.” Sou’s Minecraft avatar wandered back into the house, interacting with the crafting table and creating a wooden hoe. He went back outside, leading everyone to a very close by river, tilling the ground directly next to the water.  
“Plant your seeds in here, Kanna.” Sou instructed, and Kanna right clicked on the tilled ground, her wheat seeds being planted firmly and healthily into the ground. 

Everyone stared at the seeds buried in the ground for a few moments.  
“...Is this another thing where we gotta just sit around waiting?” Reko spoke up, to collective agreement. Seemingly having spent her frustrations about wasting time, she just sighed and accepted the truth.  
“Actually…” Mishima spoke up. “I believe there may be a way to speed things up. I seem to remember there exists an item to accelerate plant growth.”  
“Bone meal…” Sou muttered to himself. “If we had any bones…” 

Everyone looked around their immediate surroundings. Some rotten flesh and other monster drops still laid on the ground, and seemingly everyone simultaneously got an idea. Without even needing to communicate their plan to each other, everyone set off looking for bones from a felled skeleton, otherwise they’d be stuck waiting forever for their crop to grow.  
Thankfully, it took no time at all for someone to stumble across one.

“Got one.” Keiji announced, clutching the Minecraft bone in his virtual hand. Having easily grasped the logic of this world, he found it easy to tell what he was supposed to do next with it. He placed the bone into his crafting grid, breaking it into three pieces of bone meal, and he made his way back to the seeds, everyone else following suit now that their hunt had no further meaning.  
Keiji right clicked on the seeds thrice, causing golden wheat to sprout from the ground spectacularly.

“Good work, Keiji.” Sou said, with an unreadable smile. “...Thanks.” Keiji replied, mainly only for politeness’ sake.  
Sou broke the wheat, and it exploded into several items, which he picked up. He used his wooden hoe to till another tile of land, planting seeds into both tiles of farmland, as he had just obtained more from the harvest.  
He still had a piece of wheat though, and so it was time for the next step of the plan.

“Alright... Who’s coming to find animals, then?” he asked, but most people weren’t too enthusiastic - apart from Q-taro, who was very prepared.  
“Ya’ better believe I am! It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to do some animal wranglin’!” he announced, to nobody’s surprise.  
“I’ll be coming too, naturally.” Sou said. “It’s not as dangerous a job as it sounds, so Q-taro and I should be fine by ourselves.”

“I’ll just… stick back here for now.” Joe said, still not feeling up for adventuring, even if it was only to find animals.  
Everyone else decided they would stay home - either to work on the house, or to tend to and expand the farm. That was fine by Sou and Q-taro though, and the two of them set off to find animals to bring home.

As the unexpected duo walked the grasslands up top, wheat held in hand, another unusual pair stood far beneath their feet, still burrowing through earth and exploring dark caves.

They had collected quite a lot of iron in their journey, and both parties agreed it would be best if they crafted some armor for themselves. Though Gin felt bad to be embezzling iron supplies, he was sure they’d understand, if it was to secure his safety. Besides, if the armor would allow the two to stay down here longer, that just meant they’d be able to get even more iron.

They had been walking for some time, and had found many passages further down into the ground. They had started to see new ores appear around them, from gold to redstone, but none were as grand as a certain glimmering blue ore. They had noticed a natural light up ahead, and went to investigate, venturing forward to see what it was, though they already had quite a good idea of what it could be.

As they approached though, it was made abundantly clear. They had discovered a small underground pond of lava, but the more striking discovery laid embedded in the walls across from it.  
“Diamonds, meow!” Gin exclaimed, in an excited manner.  
“At last! After so much searching, finally!” Alice said, relieved that their long search was finally at an end. He considered bridging across to the diamonds using cobblestone, but that seemed risky. 

As he was considering his options though, his train of thought was interrupted by a repeating sizzling sound effect, as water spilled over the lava, hardening it into obsidian. Gin’s Minecraft avatar stood by it, holding a now empty bucket in his hands.

“There, woof! Now it’s perfectly safe to cross, meow!” he said, triumphantly. His Minecraft avatar approached the diamond ore, and Alice quickly accompanied him, not wanting to miss this moment. Simultaneously, they swung their iron pickaxes at the fabled ore, breaking it into valuable chunks and storing them safely away in their inventories. Though, by the time they had exhausted the vein of diamonds, they only had five between them.

“Only five, huh…” Gin muttered, as he was hoping there would be eight, but Alice was happier about the discovery.  
“Five is plenty!” he claimed. “We merely needed three, in order to create a pickaxe. Now we may gather up this obsidian, and return to the surface.” He began using the three he had obtained to make a pickaxe, taking in the glory of such a rare tool.  
“Huh? You wanna leave already, meow?” Gin asked. After Alice was so eager to get down here, he was surprised to see him so hurried to leave right after finding diamonds.

“There is no need to stay. We have a sufficient amount of iron, and staying at this 'Y coordinate' may cause trouble.” he explained, being reasonably safe for once. Gin shrugged, and watched as Alice mined out all ten blocks of obsidian they needed, giving a splash of water when requested to solidify any extra lava.

Though it took quite a while, Alice had easily acquired ten obsidian, and began carving out the wall near them to create a staircase to the surface. Of course, he was using his iron pickaxe for this task - there was no way he was going to waste the durability on a diamond pickaxe like that.

Gin was close behind, and made sure the entrance was blocked once he went in, to ensure they’d be safe all the way up to the top. Though it was tedious, the pair eventually came to the surface, and were very surprised by what they saw. They found themselves in a savanna biome, even though they had settled in a plains biome by a forest. 

On further deliberation though, they seemed to remember seeing a savanna relatively close to home, and that was where they likely were. But, much more strikingly was the village they had just burrowed up close to.

“What a lucky find!” Alice exclaimed, with an underlying hint of childlike wonder and joy in his deep voice.  
The pair began to explore the village, looking in houses, looting chests, and stealing hay bales for the wheat they could break them down into.  
“Oh, I have an idea, meow! We should take the beds and bring them home, so we can skip nights, woof!” Gin suggested, to Alice’s agreement.  
“An excellent idea, Gin Ibushi!” Alice affirmed, and the two busied themselves with collecting beds.

Though, throughout all of this, Alice felt strangely uneasy. Something was off here - the village layout was nothing like he was used to. Unfortunately for him, a certain somebody noticed his confusion, and managed to trace the source.

Ranger’s face developed a twisted grin as he realised what was going on, and he got a simply devious idea, that far passed the line of what he was allowed to do. He began typing something into the chat again, causing Safalin to look over to his computer once more. This time, he was typing for quite a long time, and it took Safalin quite a bit to realise what he was doing. Too long, in fact - she didn’t have time to stop him before he had already sent it.

In an instant, both travellers had been given a seriously deadly status effect, though not in the way one would assume. Gin and Alice noticed that they had a potion effect applied to them, and Gin's heart sank upon seeing what it was, but Alice was a bit more confused about the fact, not knowing what was going on.

A progress bar had appeared on the top of their screens, with the word “Raid” written above it.  
“A-a raid!?” Gin worriedly exclaimed, sure that he hadn’t killed any pillagers. Why was a raid starting _now_ of all times!?  
“A… a raid?” Alice echoed, though his statement was one much more of bewilderment than panic.

Safalin shot Ranger a look that clearly and loudly said “what did you just do”, but Ranger played dumb, even though he knew full well just how non-discreet his actions were, but it wasn’t as if he cared.  
“No…” Gin muttered, exiting the house he was in and looking around. Nothing had started yet, but this was only the calm before the impending storm - and what a storm it would be.

“What? What is going on?” Alice had joined Gin’s Minecraft avatar, surveying the area, though he didn’t know what was happening.  
“You mean you don’t know? But I thought you were a ‘Minecraft god’!” Ranger taunted. “Don’t tell me you’ve never even heard of such a core mechanic!”  
“This is impossible!” he replied. “There is no conceivable way that I don’t know a mechanic such as this! I played Minecraft every day of my life!” His confidence would soon waver, though. 

“...Up until… I was imprisoned…” The realisation hit both him and his companion like a ton of bricks. Of course. If content was added in an update after Alice went to prison, he would naturally have no way of knowing about it. Ranger had just discovered the Minecraft God’s biggest weakness - and what a weakness it was. He was completely and utterly in the dark here.

“G-Gin Ibushi!” he desperately regarded his young companion, who seemed nearly as shaken as he was about this, but the boy at least seemed to know about this mechanic more so than he did. “What do we do!?”  
“Um… Uh…” Gin muttered, before taking a deep breath. “We have to fight, meow!” he started to explain. “Enemies are going to start coming in waves, and we have to fight them off!”

“Is-is that all?” Alice asked - though it certainly didn’t seem like an easy task to take on with just the two of them. “V-very well! Bring it on, Rio Ranger!” he shouted to his aggressor, who was content with sitting back and watching the two of them get eviscerated by the incoming horde.

“Yeah! We’re not going down without a fight, woof!” Gin shouted. While his voice was still shaking, there was no denying his resolute spirit. The situation was dire, but there was nowhere to run, leaving them only one option.

Gin and Alice’s Minecraft avatars stood side by side, with their iron swords in their hands. As the first pillagers began to appear over the horizon, a fire burned in their hearts. It was time for the fight of - and for - their lives.


	5. Sinking Feeling

The air in the third floor lobby was certainly tension-filled. Sou was rooted to the spot, his mouth half agape in an attempt to say something to explain himself to the person who had just caught him red-handed.

He’s an idiot, he thought to himself. Why did he just walk straight in like this? Though, he could only beat himself up for so long, and there was no taking back his action now.

In front of him was a woman wearing a strange green and white dress, with a long mop of green hair that almost seemed to be damp, yet there was no other sign of liquid on her body. She seemed just as shocked as Sou was, and was similarly speechless.

Though, recognizing the power advantage she had, she was the first to speak up. “Wh-what… what are you doing here!?” Her tone was not as accusatory as you may expect. Instead, she just seemed bewildered that Sou was somehow here.

“I…” Sou spluttered out, but found himself unable to say anything else. The two of them stood in silence for just a moment longer, staring into each other’s eyes and unwillingly taking in the tension between them.

Sou finally gained enough courage to at least turn his neck, glancing over his shoulder at the corridor he had just entered from. He quickly turned back to the green-clad woman, but only for a few moments more.

That was all the time he needed to make up his mind, after all. He twisted his body around in a single, fast maneuver, and set off in a full sprint out of the room.

“W-wait!” The woman cried out, seeming desperate for answers. She tried to give chase to the fleeing man, but found it somewhat difficult to run in such a tight dress.

Fortunately for her, immediately upon entering the ruined corridor, Sou proceeded to trip over a loose floorboard in his haste and landed flat on his face, allowing her ample time to catch up.

Sou scrambled around on his hands and knees in an attempt to get up, but the uneven floor and panic coursing through him just made it quite the embarrassing display. 

“Please, stop!” the voice behind him said once more, only causing him to try to get away with more urgency. He decided the best course of action would be to turn around - not wanting to leave his back exposed for her to potentially attack him from. 

He flipped himself over, sitting on the ground while supported by his hands, and faced down his pursuer. He planned to scoot away to the room with the staircase, if he had to. Alarmingly, upon seeing his face, the woman gasped loudly, and made an attempt to approach him. 

Sou saw this as a sign of aggression, and he grabbed a nearby laminated plank of wood left laid on the floor, lifting it with some effort and weakly pointing it in her direction, as a way to tell her to keep her distance. She heard him loud and clear, and took a step backwards.

“St-stay back…” he muttered, pathetically. “...please…” Thankfully for him, intimidation wasn’t key right now. The woman was staying put a distance aways from him, and she looked down on the poor, realistically defenseless man.

“I’m not trying to hurt you…” she tried to explain to him, attempting to speak in a soothing voice, but Sou didn’t drop the makeshift weapon he had found.  
“I just want to know why- how you’re here. You’re not supposed to be here yet…” ‘Not supposed to be here’ doesn’t do well to ease Sou’s worries, and his heart was still racing.

“I… I just…” There was a dull pain in his head, and he found it hard to focus on speaking. The fall had left him very dizzy and disoriented, and he was finding it hard enough to focus on holding this plank of wood in his hands, let alone talk at the same time.

The woman noticed this, and decided her questions would have to wait. This man was a participant of the Death Game, and as such, she was obligated to tend to his injuries. “You’re hurt…” she said, changing the subject.  
Sou didn’t really feel _that_ hurt, maybe he had a bruise or a scratch at worst. But, given her reaction upon merely seeing his face, maybe he’d start regretting that thought later.  
“I can give you medical aid. Please put your weapon down…” Sou’s hazy eyes moved to the laminated plank of wood in his hands. 

Maybe it was his disorientation that clouded his judgement, or maybe he just noticed the sincerity in her voice currently, but either way, he laid the plank of wood down, but was still hesitant to let her approach - however he didn’t have much of a say in it right now.  
She approached him slowly and held out a hand to lift him up with, but he instead picked himself up off the ground on his own, and took a single step backwards, deeming this suspicious woman a bit too close for his comfort.

“Are you able to walk?” she asked him, and he blankly stared at her for a moment before answering.  
“Y-yeah.” It was more of an educated guess, if anything. He was able to stand up by himself, so if he could probably walk as well - slowly, at least.  
“Okay…” the woman said, still planning to keep an eye on him just in case he started to fall over again. “Please come with me.” She slowly began to walk to the lobby, making sure Sou was able to keep up with her.

They passed through the lobby, Sou watching his feet intently to make sure he didn’t trip over something again. He was led through a different doorway connected to the lobby into what appeared to be a medical office. The strange woman set him down on a chair, and paced around the room, seeming very puzzled.

The air in this room was cold, sterile, and somewhat oppressive. He accounted the latter feeling to all of the strange, ominous black tiles on every wall of the room. A weak hand reached out towards one, gently feeling it and running his fingers across it. The tile was very smooth, and didn’t feel like it was made out of a very sturdy material - it seemed strange to have these here.

The woman decided to approach him, making Sou tense up a little. She removed his green beanie with the other, setting it down next to him, and gently brushed some of his hair aside to get a better look at his forehead, where his pain was originating from. 

She was getting a seriously close look at his forehead, in fact. So much so that their faces were uncomfortably close, and he could feel her hot breath beating down onto his forehead. If he was uncomfortable before, he was definitely about ten times more now.

Thankfully, she pulled back, and resumed pacing around the room, but now there was a much more panicked feeling in her gait. Sou wondered if it was really that bad, and he lifted a hand towards his head to check.

“N-no! Stop!” the woman shouted, hand outstretched towards him with an open palm, and Sou immediately brought his hand down with a jolt.  
“S-sorry…” he muttered, and made a mental note to not do that again.

Still though, there wasn’t any denying that Sou felt largely okay. Surely, he just took a bit of a spill, and he would walk it off. But the way this woman was acting, you would think that he had a fractured skull, and that his brain matter was exposing or something similarly catastrophic. 

Sou marinated on this while the woman muttered something unintelligible to herself. There’s no way it was anything really serious, right? When he thought about it, it didn’t make sense for it to be anything too bad - he was able to stand up and walk right afterwards anyway.

But as his vision cleared up more and more, he began to take more notice of the way this woman was holding herself - she seemed to be ever so subtly shaking. His eyes were drawn to her legs too, in order to observe the way she was walking. Her thoughtful pace was fast and uncoordinated, but she was still trying to not trip over her own feet at least, subconsciously or not. Would someone who was treating someone with a minor scrape be acting this way?

He had to admit that he was immensely curious, but after being so suddenly halted from touching his forehead, he didn’t think there was much he could do to sate that curiosity right now. The thought that he could be seriously injured without even knowing for sure made his normally steady heartbeat speed up and slow down irregularly, planting a deep anxious feeling in his chest. Sou brought a hand to his chest, feeling his heart convulse rapidly. 

He naturally mentally pictured his beating heart, and from there tangentially connected that thought to another, freezing completely to ponder what he had just thought about. His throbbing heart slowed to an only slightly above average speed as he considered it, his worried expression contorting across multiple instants to one of curiosity, then hope, then confusion, and finally a cold fear.

If it was really that bad, then why wasn’t he bleeding?

Meanwhile, on the first floor, a red door slowly opened as two figures walked out from behind it. Well, it was a little generous to say one of them walked. In reality, he was being dragged across the floor by a high school student.

Sara grunted as she dragged the suspicious man out of the puzzle room she had found him collapsed in. He was seriously heavy, and that big metal ball he had chained to him around his leg didn’t help matters either. She let go of his arm and it fell to the ground with a solid thud.

“Sorry!” she apologised to the man out of instinct, even though he obviously couldn't hear her.  
She had only come across this man by coincidence. She was in the middle of a puzzle on the second floor that involved mirrors, and when looking around the facility for something that might help her solve it, she accidentally caught him going through the red door. She followed him in, and only found herself doing another puzzle instead, her prize for solving it being this strange man.

As she was considering the best course of action for moving him, she heard the door to the game room open far behind her, and turned her head to look at the door.

“There you are, Sara! Did you find any-” Joe cut himself off in shock upon seeing the unconscious man by her feet. “Wait- what the- who is that!?”

“I… I don’t know.” Sara admitted. “He suddenly fainted as soon as he saw me.” Joe had walked over to get a better look at him, staring down on the unconscious man with a concerned expression. 

“Could you help me move him?” Sara asked, recognizing the fact that there was no way she could just drag him all the way to a safe place. Joe nodded in affirmation, walking around the man’s unconscious body.

“Here, I’ll get his legs.” he said, since that seemed to be the heaviest part, considering the iron ball. “Try and get your arms under his shoulders, Sara.” he advised, causing Sara to nod in understanding. Joe grabbed the man’s ankles, and Sara looped her arms underneath his shoulders.

“Alright… on the count to three.” Joe said, before taking a deep breath. “One…” Both Joe and Sara’s arms tensed. “Two…” They bent their knees in preparation. “...three!” With a simultaneous grunt, by their combined strengths they managed to lift him into the air, making him much easier to transport. 

They both slowly shuffled through the room, taking great care not to drop the man onto the hard floor here. It didn’t take long for the both of them to get into the rhythm of their simultaneous shuffling though, which did at least speed things up a little bit.

Thankfully, despite his broad shoulders, the man did fit through the exit into the smoking hallway even when spread out like this. Unfortunately, no one was in this hallway either, and Sara’s arms were beginning to burn.

Joe noticed her discomfort, and decided to give her a pep talk. “Keep it together, Sara! Just a little more! We’ve got this!” Her best friend’s encouraging words did make her feel a bit better, and they continued moving the man further, ending up in the central hall. Thankfully, someone was actually here.

“Q-taro!” both high schoolers called out in unison, prompting the big man to whirl around to see what was up with them. His expression quickly morphed from curiosity to shock once he saw what they were carrying. 

“H-hey! What the hell’s with that guy!?” he asked, incredulously.  
“W-we dunno!” Joe responded, desperately hoping he’d offer to take him off their hands.  
“Well neither do I!” Q-taro unhelpfully told them. “Have someone who’d know check ‘im!”  
“Can you at least carry him for us?” Sara asked, considering Q-taro was definitely the best man for that job.  
“H-huh?” he spat out, still seemingly in a state of mild shock. “Oh! Yeah, hand ‘im over!”

Q-taro approached Joe and Sara, and they gingerly lifted the man into Q-taro’s arms, who was now carrying him bridal style with little effort. Both high schoolers sighed in relief, their arms feeling lighter than ever without all that extra burden.

“Okay…” Joe breathed out. “What now?” he asked, not having considered that part.  
“What now?” Q-taro parroted back. “We gotta find someone who can deal with this!”  
“But who?” Joe asked, prompting Q-taro to just shrug unhelpfully. Brain power wasn’t his forte, it seemed.

“Maybe… Keiji?” Sara suggested. “It’s a bit of a stretch, but as a police officer, he might have experience with dealing with unconscious people.” That logic was sound enough to follow through on, at least.  
“Awright… where’s Keiji?” Q-taro asked, with a furrowed brow.

“I saw him last on the second floor. He might still be up there.” Sara said, looking at the floor beyond the large staircase in the middle of the room. She walked towards the staircase, stepping up onto the first stair.

Q-taro went to follow, but Joe pointed out to him that going up stairs while carrying someone was a bad idea, so the two of them - three, counting the body - stayed on the first floor.

Sara ascended the staircase alone, and entered the second floor. She was surprised to see that the iron bars that blocked her path last time she was here had moved, and the path was open. Curious, she went through the new path they had opened for her, and found just who she was looking for. 

She had walked into a new part of the second floor, where there were multiple doors around. And, between all of them were Gin, Reko, Keiji and Kanna discussing something amongst themselves. Sara walked towards the group, and managed to overhear what they were saying.

“...how are we supposed to know what the combinations are, meow?” Gin asked the other two, glancing between two of the doors in the room.  
“Well… If we try every single possible combination, we’re sure to get it eventually!” Reko suggested optimistically, though she was hoping that they’d find some other way to do it. Or at least, if they didn’t, that she wouldn’t be stuck doing it.  
“...That’ll take a while.” Keiji said, intentionally understating just how monumental of a task that would be. “Most likely, there’s a clue hidden somewhere.”

Keiji had his back turned to Sara, so she reached out to tap him lightly on the shoulder to get his attention. She didn’t have time to wait for this discussion to wrap up, after all.

“Huh?” Keiji looked over his shoulder to see who just touched him. Upon seeing it was Sara, he fully turned around to look at her, and the attention of the other three was on her as well. They noticed just how serious Sara looked right now - granted, she pretty much always looked serious, but there was clearly something going on with her right now.

“Hey, Sara.” he said, as casual as always. “I went ahead and solved that puzzle you and Joe were working on.” he explained. “Hope you don’t mind.” Something told him that wasn’t what was bothering her, but he mentioned it anyway.

“That’s fine.” Sara started, not about to linger on that subject for long. “Keiji, I think we need your help.” That got his attention, and so she continued. “We found an unconscious man hiding from the rest of us.” she explained, which gave Keiji quite the inquisitive feeling, but the other three seemed more surprised if anything.

“...Now that’s interesting.” Keiji said. “Alright then. Lead the way, Sara.”  
Sara nodded and turned back, leading Keiji to the others. Gin, Reko and Kanna decided they might as well tag along too, and so they weren’t far behind.

Sara arrived at the top of the staircase down to the first floor, giving her and everyone behind her a view of the floor below. Reko involuntarily gasped, causing everyone at the top of the stairs to glance at her.  
“U-uh… Sorry, I just… I just get freaked out when I see someone unconscious. ‘Cause it’s almost like they’re dead, you know?” she lied, having thought of that on the spot. Everyone else accepted that as the truth without a second thought, considering the more pressing matter of the unconscious man himself. Everyone descended the staircase, and Keiji approached Q-taro, looking over the man in his arms.

“Ain’t he suspicious?” Q-taro asked Keiji, as the detective looked over the man in the prison jumpsuit. His eyes wandered over the man’s figure, and as his gaze rested on the man’s neck, his eyes widened slightly.

“He’s wearing a collar.” Keiji pointed out, causing Joe to walk over to peer at his neck.  
“Hey, he is! I didn’t even notice that!” Joe admitted, which was understandable considering he was holding the man’s legs the whole time, and couldn’t get a good look at his neck. “Guess that means he’s on our side!” he naively asserted, but Keiji shook his head.

“Not necessarily. There’s no denying he looks suspicious, collar or not.” He rubbed his neck thoughtfully, thinking what was best to do with him.  
“Especially since he was hiding from us.” Sara said, adding on to Keiji’s point. “I think we should tie him up, before he wakes up.” she suggested, even if it did seem a bit extreme.  
“You don’t miss a beat, Sara.” Keiji said with a smirk. It certainly did seem like the safest option.  
“Y-you’re really gonna tie him up?” Reko asked, her expression clearing showing how unsure she was about this, as if her voice didn’t do that plenty.  
“That’s the plan.” Keiji said. “Though… I don’t think I’ve seen a rope anywhere.” That could be an issue.  
“...How are we supposed to tie someone up without a rope, meow?” Gin asked, which just prompted people to shrug.  
“Worst case scenario, I could just hold ‘is arms behind his back.” Q-taro suggested. “I’ve been doin’ a good job restrainin’ him so far!” he joked, but considering he said that in his regular tone, everyone thought he was serious, and no one wanted to point out the fact that restraining an unconscious man wasn’t a huge accomplishment.

“Uh…” Joe thought to himself. Where could they find something to use as a rope? “Oh!” he exclaimed, a thought coming to him. “I know! We can use my blazer!” Joe said, looking down at his blue blazer he was wearing as a part of his uniform. 

“Now there’s an idea. That material should be strong enough.” Keiji asserted. “If we’ve got that sorted, we should find somewhere to keep him before he wakes up.” Joe looked around the room they were currently in. “I’d be pretty freaked out if I woke up somewhere like this. Maybe we should find somewhere that looks a little more normal.”  
“Like… the bar? It’d feel pretty normal to regain consciousness in a bar, right?” Q-taro suggested, prompting a couple strange glances, mainly on Reko’s part.  
“That should work fine, but let’s not waste any more time. He could wake up any moment.” Sara warned, prompting a nod from everyone else. Hoping to avoid the situation that would arise if the man were to wake up in Q-taro’s burly arms, they quickly moved.

The group of seven - eight, including the man - left the central hall, walking through the doorway into the hall leading to the bar. Keiji opened the door to the bar, and Q-taro squeezed through, making sure not to hit the man’s legs on the door frame as he went in. Thankfully, they made it through without bashing him against anything, and Q-taro laid the man down with his back to the counter, but making sure his arms were behind his back.

Joe slipped out of his blazer, - though not before taking out the little dog charm that was in his shirt pocket - and approached the man. He kneeled by his side and nudged his body slightly to give him access to his arms, brought them together with one arm and threw his blazer over them with the other. He tried to tie the man’s wrists together using his blazer, but found it a bit difficult.

“Uh…” Joe nervously laughed, turning his neck to look up at the others. “I… don’t really know how to tie a knot.” he admitted, with a nervous and apologetic smile.  
“Seriously!?” Q-taro exclaimed, incredulously.  
“Yeah… At least, not well enough to make one strong enough to hold someone’s arms together. Especially a dude as beefy looking as this guy.” he told Q-taro, which at least made a little more sense to him.

“Um…” a previously silent voice said, causing multiple people to turn to look at its owner. Kanna stood towards the doorway, finding her nerves somewhat frayed with all of the eyes now on her. “Kanna… knows how to tie a knot. Could Kanna give it a try?” she asked, somewhat confident in her knot-making abilities, even if her nervous demeanor said otherwise.

“Don’t see why not.” Keiji said, with a shrug. Might as well let her try.  
“Sure you can, Kanna!” Joe said, shuffling around to give her room to walk up to the man, while still allowing himself to hold the man’s arms together.  
Kanna walked up to the man, her heart beating faster as she felt pressured to not let everyone down. 

Her small, delicate hands reached out towards the man’s big, rugged, cold and meaty hands, but more importantly Joe’s blazer. She gripped it by the sleeves, and started to wrap it around the man’s wrists. She found herself very focused on the task, and she soon found the job finished. She took a step back and looked over her work, as Joe turned the man’s arms gently to get a better look at the knot from multiple angles. All in all, it looked like it’d hold.

“Umm… done.” she announced, and started to walk back to the back of the room.  
“Looks pretty good, Kanna!” Joe told her with a smile, finally letting go of the man’s arms and gently pushing him back up against the counter.  
“Th-thank you…” Kanna thanked him, and was glad that she was finally of some use to the group.

“Hold on, Kanna.” Sara said, making her stop in her tracks. The high schooler slipped out of her blazer as well, and offered it gently to the younger girl. “Do you think you could tie up his legs too?”  
Kanna nodded, taking Sara’s blazer out of her hands and returning to the unconscious man, expertly tying his ankles together with the same precision she used for his wrists.

“Guess there ain’t nothin’ left to do now.” Q-taro said, leaning against a wall and crossing his arms impatiently. He eyed the man’s body, wondering when he’d finally wake up. He briefly considered shaking him awake, but thankfully a more reasonable voice derailed his train of thought.  
“Don’t you think we should gather everyone else here?” Sara asked the group, which got some people thinking.  
“I’d say so.” Keiji affirmed. “We’ve got a lot of questions to ask. Only logical that we get everyone here.”  
Everyone else nodded or mumbled their agreement - no reason to keep this to themselves.  
“Alright, then.” Sara began, turning around to leave. “I’ll be back in a moment. Keep an eye on him.” she told everyone, as if they weren’t going to do that anyway.  
“You got it, Sara.” Joe said, as she left the bar, keeping a careful watch on the unconscious man. He was sure to stir any moment, now.

Sara gave a quick glance around the hallway outside of the bar, seeing no one around. Of course, she didn’t expect anyone to be conveniently just standing outside, and so she was completely unfazed upon seeing no one else was here. She briskly walks to the central hall, not wanting to waste any more time than she has to.

However, no one was here either. She glanced up towards the doorway to the second floor - it was possible that someone had gone up there in the time she was in the bar, but she could check there later. In the meantime, she decided to go through a doorway to another hallway. She took in the sights of the corridor, noting the large, brown vending machine and the door to, presumably, the smoking area towards the back. 

She had already tried this the first time she came here and investigated, but she supposed it was worth another shot. She approached the door and clasped a pale hand over the doorknob, twisting and roughly jiggling it, alternating between pushing and pulling the door to see if either methods would work. Though, of course, they didn’t. She wasn’t really sure what she expected, and she resigned herself to the fact that the door wasn’t going to open any time soon. There were more likely places that she had to check for anyone, anyway - she didn’t have time to be bashing at doors that led nowhere.

Instead, she walked away from the door, slipping through the doorway that led to the game room, as helpfully indicated by the green sign next to the door. Things seemed just as she left them here, as she saw that the red door was still wide open, from when she emerged with the mysterious man in tow. Though, of course, that didn’t mean that she just wasn’t going to look around here. First, she peered into the room beyond the door of red, making sure to keep one foot outside of the room pushed up against the door to act as a door stopper. She was completely locked in the first time she went in here, and she wasn’t willing to risk it again.

Her watchful gaze danced about the room - but everything seemed usual, she thought. Well, as usual as this crazy room got, anyway. It was as she left it, she corrected herself, as if she had to justify her thought process to someone.

Using the foot she had out of the room as an anchor, she pulled herself back out of the room. There was nowhere else to hide in there, so it was safe enough to assume no one else had decided to cache themselves inside there.

Next up was naturally the room beyond the blue door. She grasped the door’s handle and effortlessly pushed it open, feeling a small weight pressing down on her heart as she looked inside. Everything was as normal at a first glance, but she still walked further inside, planning to get a thorough look around. She really didn’t like this room - who could expect her to?

Her gaze lifted towards the painting hung on the wall, which now stayed motionless and unsuspicious - but as anyone who had been in this room not so long ago could tell you, that painting was far from regular.

Her mind started to drift to the memories she had of the game of Russian Roulette that took place here, but she merely gave an involuntary sigh to no one in particular - it wasn’t worth dwelling on at all, really. She succeeded, no one died, and that was all there was to say on the matter, as what was important now was her investigation. 

Sara peered behind the row of checkered chairs on the floor of the room, nothing - or no one, for that matter - seemed to be hiding behind them. She didn’t take long looking behind them before she began climbing up the ladder that was in the room, taking her to an elevated platform that had a few more chairs on it. She looked behind those as well, but nothing was here either.

She sighed as she went back down the ladder - this was just another waste of time. She walked to the door of the room, eager to get back on with her search of the first floor, and hoped that she’d actually come across anyone before the man woke up. But, before leaving, she looked over her shoulder at the painting hung on the wall. It felt as if it was really going to come back alive any second now, yet no matter how long she looked at it, nothing happened. She decided to ignore the feeling, and left through the blue door, closing it behind her.

As Sara speed walked through the game room, she found herself alone with her thoughts. Ever since she came here, she has had trouble thinking straight if she’s not got something specific to focus on, or someone to talk to at any given time. Though, even in the case of the latter, everyone here made her feel especially uneasy - with the exception of Joe, of course. It would seem natural to feel suspicious of strangers in a place like this, but it felt like more than that. She couldn’t explain it to herself, no matter how hard she tried.

Sara exited the game room, sparing only a quick glance from side to side in the hallway with the brown vending machine as if she was preparing to cross a mostly silent road. She didn’t bother trying to open the door in the back again, and merely walked straight to the central hall.

Her eyes moved back up to the doorway to the second floor - it was somewhat hard not to focus on it considering the huge staircase in the middle of the room. In due time, she told herself, and she instead set off towards another doorway on the first floor.

It led straight into the cafeteria, and at first glance, nothing seemed off here either. She felt a tiny bit deflated, before her eyes caught sight of movement. She looked over to her left, seeing the window to the kitchen - and behind it were Nao and Mishima, talking amongst each other.  
Her first thought was “finally”, glad to have finally actually found someone, but that feeling of relief and jubilation was soon only somewhat overshadowed by curiosity. The door to the kitchen was always locked, as far as Sara knew, so she wondered how the two of them managed to get in there. She could ask them later though, as in the meantime she had to get them to come with her.

She walked up to the kitchen door, finding a key still lodged in the keyhole. She had already assumed they had found a key, so that wasn’t much of a surprise - what she wanted to know was where they found it.

Regardless, she turned the doorknob and quietly pushed the kitchen door open, stepping inside for the first time. Nao and her ex-professor were seemingly too engrossed in their discussion to notice Sara come in, likely also due to the fact that neither of them were looking her way when she entered. Instead, they stood by one of the kitchen counters, peering up at a large grey box-like object above it.  
Sara calmly walked up to the pair, accidentally overhearing a small portion of their discussion.

“...He’s taking a long time…” Nao said, glancing from the object the two of them were looking up at to Mishima, who was next to her with a very nervous expression, though it wasn’t as if Sara could see it. “We-we shouldn’t have let him go…” she muttered, nervously clasping both hands close to her chest. Mishima opened his mouth to speak and attempt to reassure her, but both of them were taken off guard by a voice from behind them.

“Excuse me.” Sara said, causing Nao to quietly yelp, her exclamation muffled only by the hand she had reflexively clasped to her mouth. Mishima on the other hand was quite composed regarding the intrusion. 

He turned around to face the person who was trying to get his attention, and lifted a single finger to push his glasses in and secure them on his face - which seemed prudent as he was now looking down at the high schooler.

“Miss Sara.” Mishima simply said, in order to address her. Nao had turned around by now, and was giving Sara a full look of her concerned and frazzled composition. “Do you need something? I am afraid we’re still using the lighter you gave me.” Mishima told her, but Sara only shook her head, having completely forgotten about the whole lighter thing anyway.

“No, it’s not about that.” Sara replied, which Mishima was quite glad about - he would’ve found it a bit hard to explain where it was right now, and why he couldn’t give it back to her.

“We found someone.” Sara said, matter of factly, which simultaneously piqued Mishima’s interest and concerned him.  
“Found someone, you say?” he repeated, the back of his hand supporting his chin as he stood in thought. Sara nodded, and continued.

“We don’t know who he is, but we’re going to find out. We thought it’d be best for everyone to be present when we question him.” she told him, hoping he’d just quickly come along with her.  
“Where is this person currently?” Mishima quizzed, prompting a quick response from Sara.  
“We have him tied up in the bar - he’s unconscious.” she added on. Mishima opened his mouth to speak, but the voice of his former student overtook his own.  
“You… you tied him up?” she rhetorically asked - it wasn’t as if she didn’t hear Sara or anything.  
“There didn’t seem like much of another choice…” Sara tried to explain herself, a very slight hint of both remorse and irritation in her eyes and voice respectively. “We’ll untie him if he doesn’t pose a threat when he wakes up, okay?” Sara told Nao, making her withdraw a bit more than she already had - that inflection of irritation made her seem a bit intimidating to the meek artist.

“Very well. We’ll head there right away, Miss Sara.” Mishima assured her, and Sara thanked them. She was about to head right back out to resume her search, but a voice stopped her in her tracks before she could leave.

“W-wait!” Nao called out, giving her the full attention of both Sara and Mishima.  
“U-um… Sorry, but…” Her words faltered ever so slightly, but the expectant gazes of both of the others in the room gave her the drive to finish what she had to say. “Is it… okay if I stay here?”

“...Why?” Sara asked, her analytical gaze scanning Nao as if she could fully gleam her intentions from her bearing alone.  
“Um…” The high schooler’s gaze seemed to petrify the poor college student as she found herself unable to say much of anything. She was trying to think of how she could possibly explain her reasoning, but thankfully someone else had stepped in to help her, as signified by the cold, yet comforting hand placed gently on her shoulder.

“It’s… really quite complicated.” Mishima told Sara, but he knew she wouldn’t be satisfied with just that. “However, I believe it would be best for Miss Nao to stay here.” Just as she was about to probe further, Mishima gave her a warm smile. “We can tell you all about it later, but time is currently of the essence, is it not?”  
Well, he was certainly right on that point. The two of them seemed quite set on Nao staying behind, and, besides, they hadn’t done anything so far to make Sara actively distrust them, so…

“Okay. But we should really get going.” Mishima nodded, understanding the need to get moving, and accompanied Sara out of the room, giving a final glance to Nao, which prompted her to give him a silent nod. He smiled at her, and walked out of the kitchen with Sara.

Mystifyingly, instead of walking out of the cafeteria to go to the bar, Sara instead walked deeper into the cafeteria, going towards the back where the pink room was.

“Miss Sara?” he called out to her. “May I ask, where are you going? The bar is the other way.” he told her, just in case she had somehow forgotten the way she came into the cafeteria.

“I know.” she told him, causing Mishima to raise an eyebrow in a gesture of both confusion and curiosity. “I’m going to go find Sou and Kai.”

The woman half-kneeled in front of Sou in order to match his current height. In her hand was a roll of bandages, and she used the other hand to pull out and tear off a sizable piece from it. She set the roll aside, and used her now free hand to once again brush aside Sou’s hair, lifting the other one that was still clutching the bandages in preparation of what was to come. 

Her eyes were firmly affixed to Sou’s forehead, so she wasn’t paying enough attention to Sou’s face to see the way his gaze probed her facial features. The fact that she’s been wearing that constant perturbed frown while she’s been treating him made him feel a bit uneasy too - though, the more he thinks about it, the more he feels like she’s been frowning that way ever since he met her.

She began wrapping the bandages around his head. He screwed his eyes shut, winced and braced for pain when the bandages wrapped around his forehead, but he didn’t feel much of anything at all - all of the pain had mostly subsided by now.

His eyes flitted back open and his face muscles relaxed as he returned to a regular expression. He resumed subconsciously analyzing this woman’s face, and noted her expression had morphed to one of slightly less panic, and slightly more determination. That did well to ease his worries a little bit, at least. His eyes naturally gravitated to hers, and he stared for a few moments into her green, yet slightly bloodshot eyes. 

His gaze idly meandered across the red lines on her otherwise regular white sclera, but when her eyes suddenly moved to meet his, he looked away with a start. He supposed that he’d made it a little too obvious that he was staring directly into her eyes, but thankfully, her focus went back to wrapping up his forehead in only a moment. 

Sou waited for around ten seconds to pass before allowing his gaze to return to the woman’s face, making sure not to stare directly into her eyes again. Instead, he looked right below them, taking meticulous note of the dark bags underneath her eyes. Sou’s neutral expression lowered to a frown briefly, before he reminded himself that he shouldn’t sympathize with someone who could be with the kidnappers. She had to be, right? It wouldn’t make sense for a participant in this game to just be here on the third floor for seemingly no reason. But then, if she is with the kidnappers, why was she showing so much hospitality by helping him?

His eyes slowly drifted downwards, and Sou was very aware of the speed that his gaze was moving - he didn’t want to make any sudden movements and have her notice what he’s doing. His gaze moved past her small nose, thin lips and narrow chin, but finally rested on her neck, and he felt simultaneous disappointment and curiosity upon seeing that there was blue fabric covering up her neck in a cross shape. If he could’ve just caught a glance of a collar like the one he was wearing, then maybe she wasn’t with the kidnappers after all. 

He tried to look past the fabric to no avail - maybe he’d have to lean forward ever so slightly to look over it. He mentally psyched himself up, and in a moment where she had taken her eyes away from him to look for something - though she still had her hands on his head - Sou tried to lean forward ever so carefully to give himself a look over it. The woman was busying herself with a small pot on the table by them as she had moved one hand to them, her slender fingers rattling around some things that sounded like they were probably made out of metal. Don’t worry about that - Sou told himself - slowly did it, now. 

He was leaning forward at a snail’s pace, and while that was decently safe, he knew that he had to speed it up. Unfortunately, right as he was about to pick up the pace, he heard the rattling next to him come to a stop, bringing him to a complete halt, his teeth gritted behind his pursed lips and his body frozen against his better judgement - he wanted to ease himself backwards again to cover his tracks but was completely unable to move. In his peripheral vision he saw a pale arm being lifted up and brought close to his head, a small safety pin held between two fingers.  
His petrification wore off just a moment too late, and he found himself jolting backwards right as the woman turned to him. She yelped in surprise, which caused Sou to do the same, his eyes threatening to bulge right out of his head. 

“P-please stay still!” she advised Sou, and he nearly nodded on instinct but thankfully stopped himself in time, instead making a grunt of understanding. She inspected the bandages around his forehead after allowing herself to stand up, tilting Sou’s head and inspecting it from multiple sides. From this position, it was impossible to get a good look at her neck, but Sou decided it was best to not push his luck again. 

She had both hands on his head now, - even though she still had the safety pin in one - and adjusted his bandages in a few places before taking one last look from all angles. She sighed in relief after she was satisfied, and brought the safety pin up to his forehead, pinning it through a part of his bandages and securing them tight. It felt a little bit too tight in fact, and Sou’s expression seemed to betray his discomfort.

The woman took a step back, and Sou’s hair flopped back down without anyone to hold it. Thankfully, it mostly covered the bandages - though if someone was having a face-to-face conversation with him they’d probably end up noticing it. She handed his beanie back to him, and he unceremoniously stuffed it back onto his head, disturbing his teal hair even more than it already was.

“This is all I can do…” she told him, prompting him to try and cock an eyebrow, but only gave it a half hearted attempt when he found that motion far too uncomfortable with all this extra pressure on his head.

“Really?” he asked her, sparing a glance over to the weighty looking box of medical supplies on the table nearby. “Just some bandages and we’re done?” His first instinct was to try and not sound ungrateful with his tone, but reminded himself of the whole potential kidnapper thing, and he tried to cut it out.

The woman just nodded at him. “It… should heal on its own like this.” she explained, but Sou wasn’t totally sure. He gave her a skeptical look that made her withdraw into herself slightly, but he didn’t press any further.

“Right…” he slurred, casually crossing his arms and leaning back. Despite his calm and collected demeanour, he was currently desperately trying to think of any way he could get out of here and hightail it back to the staircase, but with this woman breathing down his neck, that could be difficult. If only he hadn’t tripped... 

“Um…” the woman mumbled, prompting Sou to shoot another glance in her direction. “Do you think you could answer some questions?” she asked him. Sou got the feeling that she was expecting him to cooperate, but he didn’t plan on letting things go her way.

“Why should I?” he asked, flashing an unhelpful smile at her. “I don’t even know who you are, after all. Can’t you at least let me know that first?” The woman seemed a bit taken aback by that, but understood why he would be wary of her. Unfortunately, she didn’t really have anything she could say that would make him less cautious in her presence. She crossed her arms and fiddled with the blue fabric lazily wrapped around them as she thought of what to say.

“I… can’t tell you.” she settled on, prompting Sou to try and raise an eyebrow again.  
“...Well, in that case…” Sou began, thinking over that response for a second. Couldn’t tell him? Why not? “...how about you answer a question or two of my own, instead?” he finished. She didn’t really say yes, but at the same time, it wasn’t as if she denied either, so Sou took it upon himself to ask something.

“Earlier, you said I wasn’t supposed to be here… Why is that? And how come you know that?” He had made sure to maintain eye contact as he was saying that, and noticed the way her eyes shifted to avoid his gaze as soon as he closed his mouth. Sou leaned forward a little, eager to learn how she would explain herself. 

Multiple bloated moments passed, neither party exchanging a word. Sou leaned back again, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly at her.  
“No dice, huh? That’s fine.” Getting any information out of her was going to be like extracting blood from a rock, and Sou didn’t really know why he was trying.

Regardless, and perhaps against his better judgement, he took a few more swings at it, to no avail. Questions like where they were, if anyone else was here, why she was here, all of them were met with silence. How did she expect him to answer questions if she won’t even answer any herself? At the very least, he felt safer than he did a moment ago. 

With how this woman’s shrinking into herself all the time, it made Sou feel like he had power over her, and as such the situation itself. It didn’t look like this woman had any intention of hurting him, quite the opposite, apparently, so he felt secure enough to try something a little risky. 

Sou stood from his chair, anticipating the dizziness that was sure to ensue after standing up so suddenly after sitting and being treated for so long, but he tried to look as casual as possible.  
“I think I’ll be going now.”

That got her attention, and her eyes shifted towards him, widening slightly. “...Where?” she asked, in case he was planning on sticking around this part of the facility.  
“Where I’m supposed to be, of course.” Sou elaborated with an unreadable smile, that didn’t portray how he was really currently feeling. “If I’m not wanted here, that’s fine. I can just go, okay?”

She stared at him wordlessly for a few moments, making no attempt to stop him as he walked towards the door. If he really was going to just go back to the first floor, there was no reason to stop him, but she couldn’t exactly guarantee that either. By the time she considered the possibility that he could hide away somewhere on the third floor, he was already out of the doorway.

She speed-walked out after him - considering he wasn’t running, there was no reason for her to either. However, Sou glanced over his shoulder, and immediately upon seeing she was after him, began to gradually pick up the pace until he was fully running, and so did his pursuer. 

Having learned his lesson about this, he was making sure he was constantly aware of his surroundings so he wouldn’t have to spend another age in that medical office again. His sights were of course set on that corridor he originally came from, and yet even though it was obvious where he was going, the woman still went a different way, mystifyingly.

Sou slowed down and stopped running once he saw the woman take a turn and leave through a completely different doorway, but didn’t think to dwell on it too much. This was a perfect chance, and he shouldn’t let it go to waste. He walked out of the lobby and through the ruined corridor, leering at every big rock he found in case he found the passageway he was looking for behind it.

It only took two or three before he spotted it, a large gap behind a boulder leading into pure darkness behind it, though if you squinted you might be able to make out a faint flash of red. Sou took a deep breath in preparation and squeezed behind it effortlessly, entering the room with the staircase. He let out a sigh of relief, having never been so happy to be in a dark room as ominous as this one, and he leaned against one of the stacks of rubble in the room.

Considering he couldn’t currently see his hand in front of his face, he patted down his khakis to try and find his pockets, digging one hand into each one once he easily found them. His fingers probed around in them, yet they found nothing whatsoever. Sou’s heart sank a little, but he reasoned that he might find what he was looking for in his jacket pockets instead. Though, when he stuffed his hands in those, his search still turned up fruitless. 

He cursed under his breath as he realised what must have happened - when he tripped he must’ve dropped the lighter, and didn’t see it camouflaged in the grey corridor.

Deciding to bite the bullet, he tried to sneak back into the ruined corridor, beginning a quick investigation about it to see if he could find the lighter quickly. His heart sped up as he looked under planks and behind rocks, not at all enjoying the fact that he had to go back out of his safe room just because he dropped something.

Unfortunately, not long into his investigation, he began to hear distant footsteps echoing throughout the corridor, coming from behind him. He whipped his head around in an instant, expecting to see the woman from before right behind him. 

The corridor was currently empty discounting Sou, but he knew that wouldn’t last, as the footsteps from the lobby were very slowly getting louder. He scrambled to the passageway, practically diving through it in a state of panic. 

He stumbled into the dark room, hiding behind a rock until he heard the footsteps die down. No way was he going back out there, forget the lighter. He’d just have to feel his way back to the first floor. 

Thankfully, this room at least wasn’t devoid of light. He shuffled over to the large computer system in the room that was illuminated by red light, making sure to not knock over the chair in the middle of the room again, now that he was aware of its presence. He rested his hands on the computer, sweeping them to and fro idly as he thought about where the staircase could be, noting that the top of this computer felt very clean. 

If he remembered correctly, he should be able to find the staircase if he just felt along the wall here and moved right. He gave it a try, and quickly found a spot where the wall abruptly ended - bingo. He positioned himself in front of the opening in the wall and sat on the floor. He wasn’t going to be able to walk down a staircase in pitch darkness, so he’d have to resort to other means.

He slowly began to scoot himself forward, until he felt his feet fall down onto the top step. That was a start. He continued scooting forward, feeling his legs descend further and further into the darkness. Using that sensation as a guide, he safely dropped the rest of his body onto the top step, then the one below that, and so on.  
It definitely wasn’t the fastest way of going down a staircase, but for as long as he couldn’t see anything, it was the safest, despite the way it made his tailbone ache after a while of dropping down onto each step. He bravely soldiered through it, and eventually found a hole at the end of the staircase, light weakly shining through it. 

He peered down through it, seeing a familiar blue box beneath him. He brought one leg down, securing it on the blue refrigerator before bringing the other leg down as well. He crouched down, swinging his legs over the small refrigerator and sitting down on top of it. His eyes stung as he left the completely dark void of the staircase, causing him to squint. He blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the light, and a figure close to him began to come in to focus. 

“Sou!” Nao exclaimed, a mixture of surprise and relief present in her voice. Sou’s eyes finished adjusting to the light and they opened slightly further, resulting in the two of them making brief eye contact, Sou’s dark teal eyes staring directly into Nao’s pinkish-red ones. Her eyes were glossy, and the fact that he could see his disheveled reflection in them made him instinctively look away - he’d had enough of staring into people’s eyes for now.

“M-Miss Nao.” Sou addressed her, resting his head with one hand.  
“You... you look terrible!” she remarked, causing Sou to grimace. Ouch. Nao noticed his expression, and hastily tried to clear up what she meant.  
“Sorry, I just mean…” She fumbled over her words, and her indistinct hand gestures weren’t doing well to illustrate her point.  
“It’s fine.” Sou interrupted, seeing this wasn’t going anywhere. Nao frowned, hoping that he didn’t think that she really did mean to insult him.

A couple silent moments passed before Nao decided it was best to focus on the elephant in the room.  
“What happened…?” she asked, her gaze briefly shifting up towards the hidden passageway Sou had just re-entered the kitchen from.  
“I… I found a hidden floor.” Sou began to explain. He told Nao of the dark room he found, the corridor it was connected to, the decadent lobby, and of course, the strange woman he had met in that room. Nao gasped a little at the admission that he wasn’t alone up there, but allowed him to continue his story with bated breath.

He told her of his attempted great escape and the grave injury he had sustained on the way out. He was exaggerating a little bit, but that’s what storytelling is all about, isn’t it? At least the spirit of it all was still intact, and it was definitely worth a bit of embellishing to see the way Nao’s expression contorted, the way she softly gasped in surprise or cooed in interest when Sou told her of his adventure on the hidden floor that laid above them.

He told her of the medical office he was escorted to, and the perhaps shoddy treatment he was given for his head injury, flipping up his hair and showing her the bandage around his forehead as he narrated his tale. He went on to explain his suspicions of the woman he had met, yet said that when he tried to get any information out of her, she went completely silent - she didn’t even try to change the subject. 

Nao remarked that there was no way this mysterious person wasn’t bad news, and while Sou agreed, he mentioned that he thought it was strange how she made no attempt to hurt or even intentionally startle him, as Miley had done with Joe in the Pink Room earlier. Nao mentally chewed on that as Sou finished up his story, detailing how he got away from her and finally, how he accidentally lost the lighter.

“It was a lot of trouble even getting down the staircase…” he muttered, and Nao nodded along, seemingly not listening as intently anymore. He thought that was a shame, but at least she lost interest at the end instead of partway through. He chose not to think about it too much, instead giving an idle and cursory look around the room. His eyes widened briefly in realisation, before his expression slowly melted into confusion.  
“...Hey, Miss Nao?” He looked back to Nao, who had perked up, giving him her attention again.  
“Where’s Mishima?” Nao and her ex-professor always seemed inseparable, and Sou couldn’t remember a time before now that he’d spotted one without the other close nearby.

Nao didn’t seem disconcerted about it though, her neutral expression not wavering. “Sara came in earlier, and left with him.” she explained, but didn’t elaborate further. Sou scoffed a little, with a slightly insouciant tone to his voice.  
“Miss Sara? Did she want her lighter back that bad?” he asked with a smirk - tough luck, if so. Inversely, the corners of Nao’s mouth curved downwards into a frown subtly.  
“No… actually, it sounded quite serious. I think she said that she found someone.” she explained, killing the smirk on Sou’s face.  
“Found someone?” he echoed. “Could you elaborate, Miss Nao?”  
Nao nodded, subconsciously touching a hand to the bottom of her chin as she tried to recall what Sara had told her. 

“Let’s see… She found someone, and wants to question them with everyone there.” she began, Sou nodding to confirm he was following. “...but he’s unconscious right now, so they tied him up in the bar in the meantime.” she finished, observing Sou’s thoughtful expression.  
“...They tied him up?” he rhetorically asked, prompting a quiet “I know, right” from Nao under her breath. “Oh, but she said that he’d be untied if he didn’t seem like a threat.” she quickly appended, prompting a slow and thoughtful nod from Sou.

“...Got it. Though, one thing…” he started, observing the way her expression ever so slightly shifted and her eyes subtly shone with curiosity. “If Miss Sara wanted everyone to be there for this, how come you’re still here?” he asked, seemingly poking a hole in her story, but she seemed happy to explain it away.  
“I asked to stay.” she told him, and Sou tried to raise an eyebrow before she continued. “After all, I had to keep watch for you, right?” she said proudly, with a smile. That feeling was just a tad too contagious, and Sou felt a smile creeping onto his face as well. 

He could’ve asked why Sara was content with leaving her alone in a mostly uninvestigated room, but for some reason, it just didn’t feel like the time.

“...Right. Thanks, Miss Nao.”

Half-focused voices rang out in the bound man’s mind, bouncing around his half-asleep mind as he gradually regained consciousness.  
“...Nao isn’t coming, but I couldn’t find Sou or Kai.” a firm, feminine voice said. It sounded like its owner couldn’t be much older than sixteen.  
“Seriously?” a much older, vaguely southern, and more masculine voice said. “Not even on the second floor? Ya’ don’t think…” Whatever that man was going to say, he trailed off into an uncomfortable silence that pervaded the air.

A pair of shallow eyes slowly opened with a groan, remaining half lidded as they groggily looked around the room.  
“He’s awake!” the masculine voice from before exclaimed, met by quiet shushing from others in the room. Blurry figures came into focus, blobs of colour seperating and forming into humanoid figures standing over their prey. 

The man in the prison jumpsuit jolted awake with a start, pivoting his head around to look at everyone in the room with a concerned look on his face. He saw quite the variety of people: a small, fragile looking middle schooler, juxtaposed by the tall and burly red-haired man with the cap, a tall, blonde man, a small boy in a strange outfit, they certainly weren’t your regular bunch. 

Though, when he looked up towards a certain rockstar looking down on him with crossed arms, he subconsciously forced himself to look away. Unfortunately for him, he just happened to look straight up at a certain high school aged girl who made his blood run cold, and it wasn’t just because of her steely analytical stare.

His eyes darted away again, but wherever he looked, he found himself surrounded by people wearing the worst of expressions, like they were staring down at a pest they were trying to figure out how to exterminate. It’s been a long time since he felt this cornered. 

He likened part of that feeling to the fact that everyone was quite literally looking down on him, so he naturally tried to stand up. However, he was met by resistance, and when he looked down at his legs to identify the issue, it didn’t take more than a moment to realise what had happened. 

The blue blazer tied around his ankles made it difficult to stand up, unless he used his arms to support himself when he stood up, and had something to hold onto. Though, of course, when he tried to separate his arms to accomplish that, he felt a similar material binding his wrists.

He nervously looked back up at the group, their expressions having not changed in the slightest, to his chagrin. He opened his mouth to speak a few times while trying to think of what to say, before finally settling on something. He consciously tried to project his voice to make himself seem bigger than he really was, as if facing off with a wild animal.

“...Do you tie up everyone you meet?” he asked rhetorically, before suddenly wishing he had chosen a different line. Maybe something more intimidating. It was too late to take it back though, and he could only await a response.

“Only the suspicious ones.” the blonde man replied with a smirk, that the striped man in school-issued bindings just hated the look of. He tried to think of a clever rebuttal, and managed to bark back something coherent at him.

“Then… then what of her!?” he asked, gesturing using his head towards Sara. She seemed confused, and somewhat offended, and everyone else was sharing some modicum of confusion.  
“How come _she_ gets to walk around freely? She’s a menace! Somebody capture her, not me, hurry!” he blurted out, considering trying to slither away from her if he had to considering all his other ways of moving had been revoked. 

“The-the hell!?” Q-taro shouted, confused out of his mind. “What’s gotten into ‘im!?”

“What’s gotten into _me!?_ ” he parroted back. “If you ask me, I’m the one acting rationally! That girl is bad news!”  
“Please calm down…” Mishima said, in an attempt to defuse the situation. “Could you explain what you mean by that, please?”

Reko scoffed and muttered under her breath. “Yeah, and could you drop that weird tone of yours?”

After sparing one last panicked look around the room, the bound man took a deep breath and tried to compose himself. That sure was a hell of a way to not make a good first impression. He tried to think of the words he was trying to say, and meanwhile people began to mutter amongst each other, as if he couldn’t hear.

“...Is this guy playin’ a joke on us?” Q-taro said, to no one in particular. Beads of sweat began to run down the striped man’s forehead for a variety of reasons, but a gruff voice saved him from the need to speak immediately.

“Listen…” Keiji began, projecting his voice around the room, and quickly getting the tied up man’s attention. “We don’t have time to spend on you. But… I’ll allow some time for inquiries. We can decide whether we’ll untie you after that.”

“S-say again!?” the striped man spluttered out. “You’ll _decide_ if you want to untie me or not?” He was met with nodding, and so he scoffed. “Don’t try to act superior, blonde rascal! I could tear these lackluster bindings asunder with only an ounce of force!” he shouted, in an attempt to intimidate everyone.

“Please don’t - I don’t have another uniform…” Joe muttered, and the bound man frowned apologetically, glancing down and away.  
He nearly said sorry by instinct, but lightly shook his head and brought himself back to his senses, looking back up at everyone.

“If you don’t want me to free myself, then untie me!” His voice echoed throughout the room, but no one else’s. Nobody was making any move to help him by any stretch of imagination, and so the bound man just huffed and growled to himself. “Fine!” he shouted in resignation. “I’ll answer your questions. Just make it quick.”

“Thank you.” Mishima said. “I understand that you’re under great stress - which is perfectly understandable, might I add - but this will make it much easier for all of us.”

The striped man nodded along with what he was saying, and he was glad at least one of them was being polite, even if he thought the grey-haired man’s tone was a tad bit condescending.  
The bound man sat up straight and looked up at everyone, waiting for them to ask whatever it was they needed to know. He just hoped it was a question he actually knew how to answer.

“Now…” Mishima began. “Could you tell us your name, please?”

The tied up man tried to put on the best poker face he could - while he supposed that was a very likely question for him to ask, for some reason, he hadn’t prepared himself for it. He didn’t really want to just give out his name right away, as he was sure it would make a mess, but he couldn’t avoid the question either, or he’d never get untied. He quickly tried to think of a way to stall time, while he could mull this over.

“...It’s proper for you to give your name first.” A couple people in the crowd rolled their eyes at that, but Mishima seemed compliant.  
“Very well. My name is Kazumi Mishima.” Mishima looked at the man expectantly, and it dawned on him that he really hadn’t bought himself much time at all. He just had to think fast, and talk slow.

“...I am…” he began, wracking his brain for something to say. “...Go… Gonbee… Yamada. You may call me Gonbee.” Some around him glanced at each other with a strange expression, and Gonbee himself could hardly believe what he just said. Was that seriously the best thing he could come up with?

Q-taro, one of those who had glanced around, gave a light snort. “S’one old fashioned name.”  
Gonbee huffed, and in most other situations he probably would’ve lashed out with some witty remark or another but now wasn’t the time - he had to cooperate with these people, even if they hadn’t made the best imprint on him.

“Next question.” Gonbee muttered.  
Mishima rubbed the bottom of his chin with his right hand, mulling over what to say. It took him a few seconds, but he thought of something to ask.  
“Could you tell us your occupation, please?”

Gonbee hadn’t prepared for this question either, and he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “My occupation is… err… a salaryman.” he answered, trying to remain vague. It wasn’t the best lie, but he thought perhaps they might buy it.

“...Dressed like that?” Sara quipped, making it very clear to Gonbee that they’re probably not buying it. He gulped almost cartoonishly, and Sara continued.  
“That looks like a prison uniform.” she observed, pointing out the elephant in the room regarding Gonbee’s appearance, discounting his crazy hair.

However, Gonbee suddenly took on a more confident demeanor. “Actually, I’ll have you know, Japanese prison uniforms don’t use this pattern!” he educated her with a smirk. “And the pajamas are vertically striped.” he tacked on.

“You sure are knowledgeable on the subject.” Sara observed, with narrow, piercing eyes.

“Wuh- I, hrm…” Gonbee spluttered out, trying to recover. “What are you insinuating? Is it not out of the question that I merely researched the topic of Japanese prisons!? You’ll find it’s a surprisingly intriguing subject!”  
He still felt many eyes looking at him skeptically, and decided that he should at least let up a little. Denying everything in his state could just compound more suspicion on his shoulders.

“Though… I will admit, your suspicions may not be… entirely unfounded.” He heard quiet chattering in the crowd, and already began to lose a bit of confidence in this plan.

“You mean to say you really are a prisoner, then?” Mishima asked with a frown.

“Don’t-don’t get the wrong idea! I was imprisoned for a… somewhat long time, but merely because I had… well, you know, borrowed from people a little too much…” he explained, his tone trailing into little more than a shameful murmur towards the end.

“Larceny, then…” Keiji muttered, trying to dispel any sort of narrative that Gonbee’s crime was just an unfortunate accident, like failing to return a book on time.

“Larceny is such an ugly word… Surely all of you have accidentally perma-borrowed a video game or two, right?” he asked, with a nervous yet attempted confident-looking smirk. “And besides, I was doing my time diligently as a model prisoner! Insinuating that I must be some sort of monster merely because I’ve served time is nothing short of character assassination!” he told them, still noticing quite a bit of suspicion on him, but he felt like he was doing well to relieve some of it. Admitting to being a criminal was definitely a good idea, as it showed just how willing to talk he was.

“And yet, despite it all, I was still brought here suddenly…” That admission raised some heads, and he heard more murmuring around him, though thankfully, this time it may be in his favour - if they know he’s a victim here too, they might accept that he doesn’t mean them harm. Some time passed without anyone asking him anything, and so he reminded people of his existence.  
“Anything else?”

Mishima thought of something to ask for a while, but it turned out that Keiji had an idea first.  
“...Know anything about the kidnappers?” the blonde detective asked, but Gonbee just shrugged.

“I have zero information. ...Well, beyond the events of my kidnapping itself, I suppose.” Keiji looked at him expectantly, and so Gonbee naturally relayed his tale.

“You see, before I was brought here, I had rare plans for a visitation.” he began to explain. “However, once I entered the visiting room, nobody came. By the time I had started to find it odd, it was too late. My senses were already fading, and I quickly lost consciousness.” he finished, before tacking on his personal thoughts too.  
“Our kidnappers possess the power to free a prisoner from his chains. We may be up against a serious threat.” he added on, to suggest that he was allied with them against a higher force, and he saw many thoughtful faces in the crowd. He mentally patted himself on the back for trying that, and awaited his next question.

Sara stepped forward, and Gonbee stifled a whimper as he looked up at her. She decided it was about time for a question that’s been burning a hole in her mind for a while.

“Why were you hiding from us?” she asked, her tone suspicious and quietly fierce.  
Gonbee pursed his lips slightly as he thought of what to say. He had no intention of lying, but it might be hard to word this - especially considering who asked it.

“Well… you see, when I woke up here, naturally, I was… how to put this… highly concerned.” he began, everyone looking at him and waiting for him to explain himself.  
“A speaker was saying something about a trial, but I had already committed myself to hiding. And so I locked the red door from the inside, and laid in wait.” So far so good, but here came the difficult part. “And… well… As I was hiding, I heard some… dreadful sounds. Several times, even.”

“What were they?” Sara quizzed, and Gonbee gulped. He took a deep breath, and tried to gather himself. He could do this. He looked directly into Sara’s eyes, and mustered the most serious gaze he could manage.

“Don’t try to feign ignorance.” he said, glad that he didn’t stutter or otherwise fumble over his words.

“...H-huh?” Sara seemed legitimately taken aback, but Gonbee didn’t let that dissuade him.

“Just think. From my location, what sounds could I have possibly heard?” Gonbee had a fake smirk on his face, as if he had Sara cornered, but she had no idea what he was talking about.  
“Can you explain yourself, Gonbee?” she asked, and his smirk morphed into a serious looking neutral expression.

“Tell me. How many have you laid hands upon?” he asked her, a tiny hint of fear still in his voice.  
“What are you talking about?” Sara responded, her bewilderment quickly morphing into indignance.  
“I know your crimes. It’s no use playing dumb with me.” People around the two of them chattered and shushed each other, wanting to hear what Gonbee had to say, but simultaneously feeling a need to gossip about it.

“Answer me.” she said firmly, staring directly into Gonbee’s eyes, yet he didn’t look away.  
“Fine, then. If you want me to expose you for who you really are in front of your allies, then I’ll do so gladly.”  
Gonbee took a deep breath, and prepared to recount the terrible tale that unfolded near him.  
“While I was hidden in the room beyond the red door, I heard the sounds of a gunfight.”  
“S-say what!?” Q-taro interrupted.  
“A gunfight! I heard nine shots ring out! As many as nine people were shot, and killed!” he continued. “Once the shots had ceased, I worked up the courage to peek through the door, to check out the situation. And there she stood! There **you** stood, a gun clutched in your hand! I’m willing to bet that these Sou and Kai people that you ‘couldn’t find’, in reality, lie dead by your hand!”

Silence permeated the room, and Gonbee wondered why people weren’t rushing to capture Sara, or at the very least reacting with the amount of shock one would expect people to have at this revelation. Or, really, saying anything at all.

“...Oh, I get it…” Joe muttered, towards the back of the room.  
“...Yup. I think Mr. Policeman here’s got it all figured out, too.” Keiji said, shaking his head slowly.  
“You-you do? Then capture her! Hurry!” Gonbee said desperately, his confidence fading now that people weren’t reacting in the way they thought he would.  
“No way!” Joe exclaimed. “Sara is innocent!”

“How can you say that after hearing everything I’ve said!? Blinding believing someone is innocent when there is witness testimony to the contrary is beyond reckless!” Gonbee barked back, trying to get people to see reason.

“‘Cause she never really shot no one!” Q-taro shouted, coming to Sara’s defense.  
“B-but… But the gunshots…” Gonbee feebly spilled out.  
“You’re right that Sara fired a gun in that room… but that’s about it.” Keiji said, finishing off all of Gonbee’s will to fight back. “What you heard wasn’t a gunfight - it was a game of Russian Roulette.”

They went on to explain what truly happened in the room beyond the blue door, as well as everything that came before it. Their first meeting, the way they were sent running around to gather four doll parts, meeting Miley and the second trial that took place in the Pink Room, effectively getting Gonbee up to speed on everything that’s happened so far.

He blinked a few times in disbelief. “So… you mean to say this was all a misunderstanding? Nobody truly got hurt?” he asked.  
“That’s what we’ve been trying to say…” Joe mumbled towards the back, but most other people just nodded in affirmation.

Gonbee frowned with half-lidded eyes for a moment, thinking things over, before his eyes suddenly shot open as he realised something.  
“W-wait! Maybe you’ve proven that no one was shot in that timeframe, but what about afterwards? These people you mentioned as I was waking up, Sou and Kai… You still haven’t located them, correct? How can you know for sure that they weren’t isolated and killed!?” Everyone was silent for a moment, and Gonbee thought for sure he had them this time, as they thought of how to prove that Sou and Kai weren’t killed by Sara. Though, as if on cue, the door to the bar creaked open, catching everyone’s attention.

Sou and Nao were standing in the doorway, the former wearing an expression similar to a deer in headlights, as everyone’s eyes seemed to be specifically on him.

“Uh… hey?” he said as the two of them entered the room, beyond fashionably late.  
“Sou!?” Joe exclaimed. “Where have you been?” he said, giving the teal haired man a confused stare. Sou got a sense of déjà vu from this, but he shrugged off both the feeling and the question. “I’ll… explain later.” he said, noncommittally.  
“...So, this is Sou…” Gonbee muttered, taking in the fact that this man was, infact, alive. Sou eyed him with a strange look, not liking the way he was looking at him, though he didn’t say anything about it.

“I assume the woman standing next to you is Kai, then?” he asked, prompting a puzzled frown from the red-haired girl.  
“No… I’m Nao.” she clarified, and Gonbee appeared somewhat confused.  
“Oh. Sorry.” A moment of uncomfortable silence passed between them. “Erm… So, this Kai person is definitely still missing?” he asked, seemingly innocently. Most people nodded at him, but Sou and Nao exchanged a strange glance.

Gonbee’s smirk returned as he prepared to put the final nail in Sara’s coffin. “Then it’s still entirely possible for you to have killed them!” he boisterously asserted, looking straight up at Sara.

“...What is this guy talking about?” Sou whispered to Joe, purely because he was the closest to him discounting Nao, who was just as clueless as Sou was.  
“I’ll explain later.” Joe whispered back with a smirk, and Sou lightly pouted at being given a taste of his own medicine.

“Actually…” Keiji began, regarding Gonbee, who whipped his head around to look at him. “That’s impossible.”  
Gonbee huffed, not convinced. “And I assume you have some so-called proof to back that up?”

“You could say that.” Keiji replied, not missing a beat. “The gun was fired nine times, right? Said as much yourself.” Gonbee cautiously nodded along, not sure where the blonde detective was going with this.

“That’s just too bad for you, then.” Keiji said, with a low, rhythmic chuckle.  
“...What are you talking about?” Gonbee asked, not liking the way Keiji seemed to be looking down on him.

“We only found nine bullets, and Sara used them all in Russian Roulette.” he told the tied up convict. Gonbee opened his mouth to speak, but Keiji shut him up.  
“She couldn’t exactly shoot Kai afterwards… and if she shot him before, she wouldn’t have enough bullets to complete the game.”

“B-but…” Gonbee tried to think of anything he could say to fix his argument. “Oh! Then she must have shot him _during_ Russ-” he began, before being interrupted by Keiji.

“Nope.” he said, in full confidence. In contrast, Gonbee himself didn’t seem to believe his own words.

“What-what do you mean, nope? Is it not possible?”

“Can’t be. While he _was_ in the room with her, so were three others. Including myself. Unless you’re insinuating that I’m lying, of course.” Keiji finished, with a smirk. Gonbee felt completely shut down, and after multiple moments of silence, he finally spoke.

“...Fine.” he said, utterly defeated. It wasn’t as if he wanted this Kai person to be dead, it just didn’t feel good to lose an argument. “I concede. This girl… is probably not a murderer.”  
Sara huffed, but kept quiet.

“If that’s out of the way, does anyone else wanna ask something?” Keiji asked, casually. He looked at everyone else, who just shook their heads, apart from Sou and Nao. They had a whole lot of questions, but they would have to be saved for later. 

“Okie-dokie. Just one last question then, from your friendly Mr. Policeman.” Gonbee frowned, not appreciating that he was being talked to like a child, not realising that Keiji did this with everyone.

“Are you gonna help us?” he asked.

“...Will you untie me if I say yes?”

“I’d rather you answer honestly.”

“Fine.” Gonbee sighed, and spent a couple seconds thinking of how to start. “After hearing of this Main Game nonsense, it’s hard to say that I can easily cooperate.” Some murmuring was heard, but Keiji was silent, appreciating his honesty.

“I barely know any of you. It takes no stretch of the imagination to assume any one of you may turn traitor, and pick off the soft-hearted and easily controlled.” He took a deep breath, and continued. “And yet, I won’t just sit around doing nothing, and neither am I going to antagonize you. Make of that what you will.”

An air of silence hung over them all as they thought about Gonbee’s words, but one person came to a conclusion much earlier than the others. Joe wordlessly walked forward, lightly nudging people aside politely to make a path for himself. He approached Gonbee, who was wearing a confused expression, and kneeled next to him, reaching behind him.  
“What are you-” Gonbee muttered, quickly trailing off. Joe looked up to him with a neutral expression, before resuming untying his bindings.  
“What? You convinced me.” he said, matter of factly.

“Are you sure about this?” Mishima asked, and Joe nodded.  
“We don’t gotta suspect our allies. If he’s not gonna get in our way, then we don’t need him tied up on the floor. Simple as that.” Joe pulled his blazer off of Gonbee’s arms, and put it back on in one swift motion, tucking the dog charm he’s been holding onto back into his blazer pocket. He started untying Gonbee’s legs as well, while Gonbee himself turned and flexed his wrists in relief.

“Beat me to it.” Keiji said with a deep chuckle, as he kneeled down to help Joe undo the knot around Gonbee’s ankles. Sara’s blazer came loose in no time, and Joe handed it back to its rightful owner, who accepted it gingerly.

Gonbee stretched his legs with a satisfied grunt before finally standing up straight, getting slightly light headed from standing up so suddenly after being down for so long. He didn’t let it get to him, though. A couple moments passed before Gonbee realised he should be saying something.

“Oh, erm, well, thank you, I suppose… Even though you all were responsible for tying me down in the first place.” he said, not doing the best job at expressing gratitude.

“As thanks for finally untying me, I would be... willing to search for this Kai character, whomever they may be.” Gonbee still had a troubled expression on his face. It was clear that he didn’t yet feel like everyone else considered him their equal, and more of an intruder to their group. 

It seemed clear enough to him that, the way things were going, the Main Game would be serious trouble for him.  
In his eyes, the only way to avoid this would be to prove his worth, and he intended to show everyone just how useful he could be.

For everyone else, the mood seemed to be lightening, and a sense of unity washed over them. Though, there was the undeniable fact that Kai was still missing, and his fate was still unknown.  
“Now then.” Keiji spoke. “Should we go search for Kai all together?” he asked, and was met with nods and grunts of agreement.  
“Yeah…” Reko muttered. “We should split up. If we’re all checking the entire place at once, we’re sure to find him.”  
Everyone else ended up voicing their agreement, and left the bar to scour every inch of the facility. Though, two people stayed behind.

“Hey, Sara... Can we talk, for a sec?” Joe asked, having stopped her from leaving by lightly tapping on her shoulder to get her attention.  
“Of course, Joe. What is it?” Sara replied.  
“It’s… about that Gonbee guy. When I looked at him, tied up on the ground… I sorta felt bad for him.”

“Cause-cause, like…” he stammered, trying to find the words to say. “I get that it made sense to tie him up like that - what if he was gonna hurt us - but for some reason, I just had this… feeling.” he explained, crossing his arms and frowning as he tried to sort through his scrambled thoughts.

“...A feeling that you’ve met him somewhere before?” Sara asked, her voice slightly wavering, for reasons she didn’t know. However, Joe’s eyes shot open in realisation.

“Yeah… yeah, that. How’d you know?”

“I felt it too, Joe.”

“You-you did?” he rhetorically asked, but Sara nodded anyway. Joe opened his mouth to say something else about this strange feeling the two of them were sharing, but he shut himself up when he noticed something.

Sara was shaking. It was ever so slight, but she was uncharacteristically trembling, yet she didn’t seem to even notice it. Even if she didn’t notice, nothing would get past the eyes of a concerned best friend. 

As it would turn out though, that sentiment goes both ways, as Sara observed how Joe’s body lightly and subtly quivered against his knowledge, the way his lips trembled, the slight hint of misplaced fear in his bright eyes that wasn’t supposed to be there. Something was wrong, both of them thought about each other, but they didn’t know what.

Sara was the one to break the silence, and chose not to point out the way Joe was trembling. Her voice was unsure, timorous, and held an inflection Joe felt like he had never heard from her before. 

“And… and it’s not just him, isn’t it?”

“Y… yeah.”

Sou briskly walked alone through the central hall, having wordlessly split away from Nao and leaving her in the care of her ex-professor. A dull throbbing pain hammered away inside of his head, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of his injury or just a headache brought on by everything that’s been happening recently. 

He’s had enough excitement for now, he thought to himself, and right now, just wanted to be alone with his thoughts. He knew the perfect place to isolate himself, and was headed straight there. 

He passed through the doorway into the cafeteria and ignored Reko and Gin, who were busily looking under tables and chairs as if they’d find Kai curled up underneath one. He kept on walking towards the back of the cafeteria, entering the dark hallway leading up to the Pink Room. 

Of course, he was planning to go somewhere else. Seeing that no one was here, he felt along the right wall until he felt the outline of a door frame, running his hands all over it until he found a point where he could slide the hidden door open, stepping inside. 

He turned around and closed the door behind him, leaning against it and closing his eyes serenely as he sighed in relief. Finally, some peace and quiet. He could feel his headache dying down already.

His eyes slowly opened, enjoying the darkness of the hidden room. It was soothing in a way, even if some others could understandably find it unnerving. The only light in the room came from the desk lamp, which his eyes naturally gravitated to. It was looking down on the desk with an almost solemn look for an inanimate object, diligently illuminating the empty desk top, as its always done.

It took a few seconds for Sou to register it, but when he did, his heart nearly stopped. His expression turned to terror, and he ran to the desk, stumbling over his feet in the darkness, but he didn’t care.  
He looked under it, patting his hands all over every surface they found, but it wasn’t there. He looked behind the bookshelf, inside of it, on top, every single inch of the room, but it wasn’t anywhere. Sou clasped a stressed hand to his head, completely forgetting about his injury momentarily. The laptop was gone. Somebody took it.

He barely had time to think before his body moved on its own, and he burst out of the hidden door, not caring to check if anyone was outside or not. Thankfully, they weren’t. He ran to the Pink Room, bursting in and checking behind everything he found. Not here.

He went to the cafeteria and clumsily investigated there while Reko and Gin looked on in confusion.  
“...He must really want to find Kai, meow.” Gin whispered to Reko next to him.  
“...Yeah, but does he expect to find him hiding under a tablecloth or something?” Reko whispered back, dismissively.

Not here. He went back to the central hall, looking at both sides of the large staircase just in case. Not here.

No matter where he looked, on the first or second floors, the laptop was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Kai for that matter. Sou had returned to the hidden room to decompress and sort out his thoughts, where he now sat slumped against the closed door.

If he didn’t find the laptop anywhere, that meant it could still be concealed on someone’s person. If that was the case, he might as well say goodbye to it. Without a weapon, there’s no way he could overpower anyone stronger than Kanna or Gin.  
...Well, maybe not even Gin, those claws of his looked pretty nasty.

Sou groaned and shook away that train of thought, because now wasn’t the time to dwell on the matter of which middle schooler he could or could not beat in a fight. Besides, he might not need to worry about it, because there’s still somewhere he hasn’t checked. Somewhere no one’s checked.

The third floor. Of course - it would be the perfect place to hide it, assuming the person who took it knew of the hidden staircase. Sou practically jumped to his feet, knowing what he had to do. He cracked the door open slightly, peeking outside to make sure no one was there. Seeing the coast was clear, he slid the door open and stepped out, discreetly closing it behind him.

He tried to look as casual as possible, slipping his hands into his jacket pockets as he walked into the cafeteria. He gave a polite wave to Gin and Reko, the former reciprocating enthusiastically and the latter just raising her hand in his direction with a confused look on her face.

Good enough, he thought. He looked through the window to the kitchen, glad to see that no one was there at least, but that wasn’t good enough. Gin and Reko would still see him crawling away into the ceiling with this window here, so he had to think of a way to get them out of the room.

Perhaps if he had more time, he could’ve had a nice long discussion with them, ending in him convincing them to leave the room, but for now he needed a different, quicker approach. He wordlessly left the room, passing through the central hall into the hallway to the bar. He peeked into the room seeing that no one was here - good. Sara and Joe were here earlier, he recalled, but he must’ve made them leave after he burst in suddenly to look for the laptop and interrupted their conversation.

What he wanted to do here was certainly less strange than scuttering up and away into a hidden staircase, but he still didn’t want to be seen doing it. He walked behind the bar, triple checked that no one was looking, and swiped a bottle of alcohol from behind the counter, stowing it away in his jacket like an inexperienced shoplifter whose parents refused to let him drink alcohol. 

The outline of the bottle was very clear if he kept it to the side, so he instead opted to have it in the front, zipping up his jacket and hunching over, clutching it from the front with both hands so it wouldn’t fall. He could just pretend to be nursing a stomach-ache, if he was asked why he was acting like this.

He shambled out of the bar, walking through the central hall and getting a couple odd glances from people who were in the room, trying his best to look queasy. He dropped the act once he got to the cafeteria though, opting to just look moderately uncomfortable instead, as suddenly appearing sick when they had just seen him acting regularly would’ve been very suspicious. 

Though, judging by the stares the two of them affixed him with, they were already plenty suspicious as is. Regardless, he went to the back of the cafeteria, and into the Pink Room. Everything was silent in there for now, but not for long. He made sure the door was wide open, and unzipped his jacket, revealing the bottle of generic alcohol. He clutched the neck of the bottle with both hands, flipping it around as if he were about to use it to club someone in front of him.

He raised the bottle over his head, took a deep breath, and threw it to the ground with as much power as he could muster. Before the bottle even hit the ground, Sou instantly flinched and withdrew into himself, shielding as many delicate parts as he could from the quite literal splash zone, though he was more worried about glass shards than he was about the liquid.

A loud shattering sound echoed throughout the room, and the hallway it was connected to. He was sure it reached the cafeteria as well - perfect. Sou quickly ran out of the room, glad that he wasn’t harmed by the shrapnel, and scrambled to get inside of the hidden room, making it inside in time, and quietly closing the door behind him. He only had to wait a couple seconds before he heard two pairs of footsteps outside, running through the hallway into the Pink Room.

He heard two voices a short distance away, and while one was muffled and unintelligible, he still heard Reko loud and clear, shouting her head off about “that goddamn beanie guy smashing a bottle in here.” Whoops. He could talk things over with her later, for now he just had to use this opportunity well. 

While they were distracted by the bottle, he slipped out of the hidden room, quietly closing the door as he did and sneaking away from the scene. Thankfully, neither Gin nor Reko noticed him leaving over the latter’s shouting, and Sou managed to get away and into the cafeteria, where he was finally alone.

There was still no time to waste, as either Reko and her guard dog would be back here soon, or somebody would come to investigate what Reko was getting so worked up about, as Sou wouldn’t be all too surprised if even those on the second floor could hear her from there. He ran to the kitchen, throwing the door open and clambering onto the countertop by the blue refrigerator. 

He scrambled on top of the refrigerator before standing up and raising himself up onto the first step of the hidden staircase, breathing a sigh of relief. Even if someone walked into the cafeteria now, they wouldn’t be able to see him, and he considered this plan a rousing success, even if Reko did immediately rumble him.

He tried to position himself in the darkness, slowly leaning forward and placing his hands on one of the steps further up. He arched his back downwards slightly, and began climbing up the stairs on all fours. Without a light, he didn’t feel comfortable walking up normally in case he missed a step and stumbled, which could easily prove fatal in a place like this. If he’s climbing the steps with his hands before his feet touch them, there’s a much lower chance of him missing them.

With this quadrupedal technique, he steadily ascended the dark staircase, finding himself capable of building quite some speed like this, though he wasn’t about to risk going too fast and messing things up. He was in a hurry, sure, but not _that_ much of one.  
His heart pounded more and more the further up he got, but he kept telling himself it would be fine. He was just planning to have a quick look around. He wouldn’t be caught.

Eventually, he found an especially long step that seemed to stretch on forever, but quickly reasoned that it was in reality the floor of the room covered in rubble, his conclusion backed up by the warm light of the computer tower to his right. He made sure his legs were on solid ground then stood up, dusting himself off after crawling up that staircase for so long and stretched with a groan. “What’s next?” he thought to himself.

Given that it was one of only two beacons of light in the room, he walked over to the computer tower to his right, deciding that would be the best place to start his investigation. He ran his hands over it as he had done before, and immediately felt something on top of the computer tower. 

The red light was illuminating an outline of the object he was touching, and it seemed moderately sized with a rectangular shape. No way, he thought. That was so easy!

He picked up the laptop with a relieved expression, holding it close to his chest as he sighed. He’d only been up here for around ten seconds, but he’d already gotten what he came for. He was so excited about his find that he had forgotten about the fact that there had to be a reason why the laptop was here.

Luckily for him, he didn’t have to remember on his own.

A cold and hauntingly familiar voice rang out through the rubble-ridden room, instantly paralyzing Sou in shock and turning his relieved expression to one of terror as he realised he wasn’t alone. He couldn’t even turn to look to the corner of the room that the voice was coming from, and where a familiar silhouette stood cloaked in darkness, looking straight through him with piercing, expressionless eyes.

_”Sou. Please put that back.”_


	6. Smoke and Mirrors

With racing hearts, Alice and Gin’s Minecraft avatars stood in the village they had discovered only moments prior, iron swords in hand. While they had looted the village for everything it was worth already, they would turn out to be second-rate raiders compared to the people currently rolling over the hills, with deadly weaponry in hand.

As they got closer, the intimidated pair were able to get a better look at their enemies. There were six in total, five of which wielded crossbows, and the final one in front wielding a nasty looking axe.  
Unfortunately, by the time they had counted the weapons, the raiders were already upon them, as they moved alarmingly quickly. The crossbow wielding raiders rooted themselves to the spot as they prepared to fire, while their axe wielding leader charged forwards with his weapon held high. Arrows flew through the air towards the duo, but thankfully due to a lengthy loading animation serving as a warning, both Alice and Gin managed to avoid them with little effort.

Alice was the first to act. “I’ll take down the closest one!” he bellowed, focusing his attention on the axe wielding pillager approaching him. Alice strafed from side to side looking for an opening while walking backwards, however found himself slightly alarmed at just how quickly his enemy was gaining on him. He briefly spun around to sprint away to get a little more distance between himself and his foe, before twisting his blocky body back around and lightly jabbing at his opponent with his iron sword. Once more, he spun around and got distance before dealing some extra chip damage and repeating the defensive algorithm.

“Then I’ll take care of the arrow guys, meow!” Gin asserted, running around the axe wielder who was fighting with Alice and towards the five archers towards the back. “Back me up when you’re done with the vindicator, woof!” he advised, and Alice nodded and grunted to show his understanding, recognizing that he was referring to the axe wielder.

Gin approached the crossbow wielding pillagers, who loaded arrows into their weapons methodically. Gin waited merely a couple moments before lurching to the left, all five arrows soaring past to his right, narrowly missing him. The boy ran up to them properly, and viciously swung his iron sword repeatedly towards them. The sweep effect hit all of them at once, but the knockback from his sword ended up knocking a couple of them out of range of his sweep attack. He noticed arrows being loaded right as he finished off one of them, and set off running in a random direction, but looped back around and made a u-turn to try and avoid the arrows. Unfortunately, one of them still connected, and Gin’s breath hitched a little bit in surprise as he took moderate damage, despite the fact that he was wearing a full set of iron armor. These raiders were seriously no joke on Hardcore mode.

Alice’s iron sword tore through his opponent one final time, and the vindicator turned red and fell to the ground, dissipating into the air in a pixelated puff of smoke. He turned his attention to Gin and the small swarm of pillagers ahead, just in time to see Gin get an arrow directly through the shoulder.  
“F-fret not!” he called out, speeding towards the archers. He leapt into the air heroically, and brought his iron sword down onto a damaged pillager’s head. Due to his airborne state, the attack landed for critical damage, and the pillager perished in a single hit. As soon as he hit the ground, he slammed his left thumb onto his spacebar with frame-perfect precision, and his Minecraft avatar bounced once more, executing another pillager with a critical strike.

Gin ran up to the final two pillagers and jumped into the air in perfect coincidental unison with Alice, each of them taking down one of the remaining pillagers with a critical hit and clearing the wave.  
Both of them breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have some downtime between waves.

“That… that wasn’t so bad.” Alice said, in a mixture of nervousness and relief. “How many of these waves are there, anyway?”  
“...There’s seven, meow…” Gin answered.  
“O-oh. Well, if they’re all like this, this might not be so bad…!” he asserted, naively. However, Gin’s solemn silence told him everything he needed to know - this was only the beginning.

Gin pressed the E key to open his inventory, and shortly scoured it in search of a crafting table. It didn’t take him long to find one, and he moved it to his hotbar. Gin’s Minecraft avatar placed down the crafting table and interacted with it, placed his hay bales he had gathered from the village into the crafting grid, and broke them down into multiple stacks of wheat which he quickly converted into bread. Alice also got the message and did the same with his own hay bales, accumulating quite the stockpile of bread. Gin also used some iron and wood to make two shields and threw one of them to Alice, who graciously accepted it into his off-hand. With a swift press of the F key, Gin’s Minecraft avatar took the shield into his left hand, ate some bread to recover his health, and held his sword high in preparation of the next wave.

Meanwhile, back at home base, progress had slowed quite a bit. The life threatening situation Alice and Gin were in had understandably seized all of their attention, and those close in proximity to the village defenders peered nervously at their laptop screens to spectate the battle without putting themselves in harms way. Joe had leaned forward to look past Sara at Gin, who was on her other side.  
“Do... do you need some backup, Gin?” Joe asked the boy. “‘Cause-cause I could run right over and give you a hand.” he stammered, clearly not entirely sure about the idea himself. 

Thankfully, Gin shook his head anyway. “...We’ll be fine, woof.” he asserted, with an uncertain amount of confidence.  
Joe opened his mouth to protest, but found that nothing came out. He tried to think of something to say, but decided that anything he could say probably wouldn’t even get through to Gin, judging by how fiercely he was looking at his screen, and how focused he appeared - or at least, that was his excuse to not say anything. He withdrew, and just decided to keep the possibility of sending backup in mind, if it was necessary.

“Look alive, Gin Ibushi!” Alice warned, from the other side of the table. “The next wave is upon us!”  
Gin nodded bravely, and looked ahead at his aggressors, quickly approaching him.

This time, there were seven raiders. Four of them held crossbows in hand, while three wielded iron axes. As the raid was only just beginning, things were still tame, but Gin knew well that this was just the calm before a mighty storm.

“Let’s do the same thing as last time, woof! I’ll take the ones in the back, meow!” Gin advised, and Alice nodded in agreement, focusing his attention on the group of three vindicators approaching him with sharp axes.

Gin ran around the side towards the pillagers in the back, who loaded arrows into their crossbows upon seeing the boy approach them. However, with a press of the right mouse button, Gin’s Minecraft avatar shielded himself with the large shield he had crafted moments before.

All four arrows collided with Gin’s shield, but merely bounced off and landed harmlessly on the ground. Gin took the opportunity to move forward, cutting through the grey skin of the pillagers with his iron sword and deflecting arrows with his shield, dealing heavy damage in no time without taking any more arrows to the body.

Alice spared a single slash to the group of three running towards him before throwing up his shield as well. One of the vindicators brought their axe down upon Alice’s shield, and his Minecraft avatar felt the fierce vibrations from such an attack reverberate throughout his shield and thus throughout his arm. His Minecraft avatar failed to keep the shield up, and the pitiful convict was left defenseless. 

“Wuh-” was all he managed to get out before being brutally chopped by an iron axe from another vindicator, taking seven and a half hearts worth of damage out of ten hearts total - an insane number, especially considering he was wearing a full set of iron armor.  
Thankfully, he instinctively slammed a finger onto the S key, and his Minecraft avatar began moving backwards, avoiding the third vindicator’s axe swing, which would’ve killed him with absolute certainty.

However, the vindicators were still gaining on him, due to the alarming speed at which they moved. Seeing no other choice, Alice whipped his wrist around to turn his Minecraft avatar around and, while involuntarily making a high pitched yelp of fear, slammed his left middle finger onto the W key twice in rapid succession, setting off in a sprint away from the vindicators, who were still in hot pursuit.

Alice’s distressed cries easily got Gin’s attention, who nearly let himself get hit by an arrow by accident, as he was distracted both by his concern for Alice and the crossbow that had just been added to his hotbar, dropped by one of the pillagers he took down.  
Thankfully managing to evade the arrow, and deciding the crossbow wielding pillagers could wait, Gin set off running after Alice instead. 

By jumping while running, Gin managed to build enough speed to catch up to the vindicators, and delivered a mean slash to each of their backs at once. Having gained their attention, Gin spared a couple more slashes before he turned around and ran away from them. Meanwhile, Alice feverishly shoved bread into his mouth to restore his health, considering he was currently in critical condition.

Having gained the ire of every single hostile entity in the village, Gin was understandably a little bit spooked so to speak, but he didn’t dare run back to Alice in case the injured convict would be endangered further.  
Instead, he ran towards the crossbow wielding pillagers, hoping to use their talents for his own benefit.

The remaining two pillagers who until now had played a largely insignificant role in this skirmish loaded arrows into their crossbows, lifting them up towards Gin menacingly. However, he lunged to the side at the last second before they fired, and the arrows completely missed him, instead piercing straight through the Vindicators who were behind him.

The two of them who were struck by the arrows turned red and fell to the ground in a final grunt, disappearing into two pixelated clouds of smoke, leaving behind only small green orbs packed with experience points.

Gin’s mouth twitched and eventually turned to a half-smile through his disquiet behind his mask upon hearing the dying cries of the vindicators behind him. He was glad that worked, because quite frankly, he had no idea what he was going to do if it didn’t. With the vindicator ranks drastically reduced, the second wave was a lot less scary all of a sudden, and Gin moved in to take out both of the crossbow wielding pillagers with a critical strike each, deciding they had outlived their usefulness.  
He turned around in time to slash at the final vindicator who had crept up on the young player unsuccessfully, and dealt knockback damage with each strike that kept enough distance between them for Gin to be safe. It didn’t take any more than a few swings for the final vindicator to go down, and for the second wave to end for good.

Gin was relieved to see the final raider turn to smoke, but his adrenaline rush was nowhere close to subsiding, as this raid had only just begun, and they had just completed the last of the easier waves. Despite that though, Gin felt at least a little bit more confident about this ordeal. He was close to collapsing out of fear at the beginning, but now that he’d made it through two waves with barely a scratch, maybe he could do this after all.

“Seven and a half hearts…” Alice breathed out, letting Gin realise that his companion wasn’t as confident as he is about this whole thing.  
“Discounting explosions and fall damage, I have never taken that much damage in a single hit, in my entire Minecraft career! These raiders are truly forces to be reckoned with!” he asserted. “If these savages are capable of even this magnitude of damage, we-we may be in over our heads!” Alice finished, before quieting down a little. He began to notice that contrary to his own worried state, Gin seemed almost serene in his focus, which quelled his worries a little bit.

Gin was an experienced player, after all, and knew things Alice didn’t. If he seemed so nonplussed about the situation, maybe he had a trick up his sleeve, or merely knew that things weren’t going to get much harder from here on out.  
Regardless of what it was, Alice’s Minecraft avatar hobbled to Gin’s, who was standing nearby the crafting table the younger adventurer had placed earlier, and the two of them waited for the next wave to arrive, shields and swords at the ready.

Luckily - though it would be more accurate to say nothing about this was very lucky whatsoever - they didn’t have to wait for long before six more raiders appeared over the horizon, not counting the large beast walking along with them that was practically quaking the ground nearby it with every step. Alice watched the behemoth ahead of him stomp forwards with a dropped jaw, not having seen anything like it in Minecraft before, but Gin’s expression didn’t change much. Instead, his heart sank uncomfortably low, and his confident outlook melted away rather quickly.

“...Gin Ibushi…!” Alice called out, seeking guidance from the most bountiful source of information readily accessible to him. “What in the world is that thing!?” he said, his Minecraft avatar swinging at the air in front of him in a meager attempt to point at the beast that was slowly approaching the village. Gin didn’t need the signal though, as there was only one thing Alice could’ve been referring to.

“...It’s a ravager, meow.” Gin told him, though it took him a couple seconds to react, which Alice found somewhat odd.  
“A… ravager?” Alice parroted, which prompted no response from Gin, though he didn’t really expect it to anyway. “...I see. Then… I shall attempt to defeat it.” he asserted, looking to make himself useful. “Perhaps you should… route the others, and-” he strategized, but found himself abruptly interrupted by Gin, who suddenly seemed a little desperate - the poor boy was going through a lot of states of mind quite quickly.  
“W-wait, wait! Don’t try to attack it, woof!” he warned, and Alice cocked an eyebrow and frowned in confusion and surprise.

“Why not? We will never clear this raid without taking it down!”

“But if you get close to it, it’ll attack you, meow! It’s impossible to kill one with only a sword, woof!” Gin told him, his heart gradually picking up in speed. If not by sword, how in the world _were_ they supposed to kill it!?

“But-but swords are all we have!” Alice said, pointing out Gin’s biggest concern. Though, perhaps that wasn’t entirely true. Gin’s eyes slowly gravitated towards his hotbar at the bottom of his screen. Contained in it were his damaged iron sword, his two-thirds broken iron pickaxe, some miscellaneous blocks, a generous amount of torches and finally, the crossbow he had picked up earlier.

His right pointer finger pulled back, rolling the mouse wheel on the USB mouse connected to his laptop. The item held in his Minecraft avatar’s right hand cycled through everything in his hotbar, and stopped once it reached his crossbow. He held down the right mouse button and hoped for the best, but the crossbow remained unloaded. Of course - it was wishful thinking to hope that he had somehow picked up arrows at some point without noticing, and that they’d deliver him from this terrible situation.

That hopeful train of thought thoroughly derailed, Gin’s heart and mind alike raced as he tried to think of what he could possibly do.  
Meanwhile, Alice watched the raiders gradually approach, unsure of what he could do. He could take out the small fries for sure, but if the ravager was as invincible as Gin claimed, it wouldn’t even matter in the end. It was then that he noticed one of the raiders was wearing a witch’s hat and a robe, which was a familiar sight for a veteran such as Alice. At least he was acquainted with one of these enemies.

Maybe they could kite the enemies so long that it turned to night, and then they could kill skeletons for arrows, Gin thought. However, it only took a moment of consideration before that plan fell apart - not only would that take so long that they may exhaust their food supplies, but then they’d also have to deal with the hostile monsters of the night on top of the raiders.

“Gin-Gin Ibushi…!” Alice nervously chimed, but failed to bring the boy from his stupor. “They are nearly upon us! Do you have a plan?” he asked, ready to run at any moment. Gin didn’t respond at all, which told Alice that the answer was a resounding no.

Thousands of useless ideas desperately swam through Gin’s mind like dozens of inexperienced children being suddenly thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool, but none of them seemed to work out. They could try to box the ravager in so it wasn’t a threat, but how? And besides, once they had done that, there still would’ve been no way to hurt it, and they would be at a standstill.

No matter how he looked at it, that was the biggest problem. Without arrows, they couldn’t deal any damage whatsoever to the Ravager, and they were sure to eventually die here, unless they could think of some clever ploy in the nick of time, but Gin couldn’t bank everything on such an unrealistic prospect.

And yet, how were they even supposed to get arrows!? Gin had considered countless possibilities in the span of the last five seconds, time almost seeming to slow down for the young boy, and yet he had come up with nothing concrete. He just needed something! A single idea, a sliver of hope that told him that this situation wasn’t as inescapable as it seemed. All he needed were arrows, but where in this godforsaken village is someone supposed to get arrows in the middle of the day!?

Gin’s cat-like eyes practically shot open as he sat up straight and lightly gasped behind the cloth covering his mouth, his arms suddenly becoming rigid. Alice noticed the boy’s sudden movement, and desperately hoped that it was a sign that Gin had figured something out - an escape route, perhaps?

They were sure to need one, after all - it was going to be merely seconds before they’d be forced to engage in a fight for which they didn’t have a plan, by any stretch of the imagination. Or, at least, Alice thought they didn’t.

Gin’s Minecraft avatar turned to Alice’s, and Alice’s Minecraft avatar turned to Gin’s upon seeing movement out of the corner of his square eyes. The two of them maintained eye contact for but a moment that felt so much longer, blocky eyes connecting amidst the chaos quickly descending upon them. Somehow, Alice could’ve sworn he saw a deep resolve in the green pixels that made up Gin’s eyes, yet surely such a thing was impossible.  
“Give me your coal.” Gin commanded. His voice was firm, yet at the same time, it wasn’t cold.  
“Wha-what!?” Alice exclaimed, bewildered. “Coal!? Why?” he sputtered out, and Gin’s voice instantly increased in volume, sounding more desperate.  
“There’s no time to explain, meow! Just give me your coal, woof!” he barked back. Though his request was certainly abnormal, Alice had been hoping for Gin to think of something this entire time. If he finally had, then there was no way he wasn’t going to cooperate with his plan, no matter how strange it was.

Alice slammed a finger onto the E key, opening his inventory. It took merely a quick scan before he located a full stack of coal in his inventory, selecting it with a click and dragging it outside of the inventory window, where he released it with another click. The entire stack of coal spilled forth from Alice’s Minecraft avatar, and landed at the younger boy’s feet. He collected all of the coal in an instant, just in time for the horde to officially be upon them. Gin wasted no time, and didn’t even spare a look at the raiders before he set off in a full sprint, Alice right behind him.

Gin was headed straight in the opposite direction of the horde, running off towards the villager houses a relatively short distance away, as they had chosen to fight in a more open area away from the villagers, nearby a river that stretched an unknown distance throughout the savanna. It didn’t take long before Gin and Alice arrived amongst the houses, but similarly it wouldn’t take long before the raiders came here as well, and then they would be back where they started.

Alice had no idea why Gin had brought him here, and even when Gin frantically peered through the windows of every house nearby, he wasn’t clued in whatsoever. In the end, he decided that if he wasn’t being told about the plan, then Gin had it under control, and all Alice could do was keep watch and protect him. Iron sword and shield still in hand, Alice faced the incoming raiders, ready to warn Gin as soon as he thought it pertinent to continue running.

He heard the sound of a door opening behind him as Gin’s Minecraft avatar entered one of the villager houses, not even closing the door behind him in his haste. He interacted with a terrified armorer inside, fumbling with the trading interface in a hurry and unloading all of his coal into the villager’s arms. The sound of the villager accepting a trade and the message in the game’s chat window that announced Gin’s completion of an advancement were all that let Alice know what Gin had done. The young boy sped out of the house with emeralds in hand, once again neglected to close the door, and ran further into the village, Alice following closely after him.

Gin looked through the window of every single house he passed, gradually getting more and more desperate as he failed to find whatever it was he was looking for. He swiftly completed a circuit of the entire village, subconsciously making sure not to retrace his steps so that he wouldn’t run straight into the raiders. By the time he had completed the circuit, he found himself atop a moderately sized hill that was still a part of the village with Alice, peering through the windows of the final two villager houses, and yet his search predictably turned up empty. Gin turned away from the last two houses and instead faced the village below him. While the hill wasn’t the tallest, the two panicked explorers atop it could still get a good look at the village below it.

Alice’s eyes nervously followed the raiders as they walked through the village and steadily approached the hill that the two of them were perched on. He wasn’t sure if the ravager could climb up a hill, but was pretty certain all the other raiders could.

In the meantime, Gin’s gaze was still elsewhere, his eyes tracing a line throughout the village as he mentally imaged the course he took through the village, just in case he had missed one of the houses. Though, of course, he saw that every house was along the path he took. He mentally sighed and felt a bit frustrated once he had reached the beginning of his course - the open area in which he and Alice were originally fighting, nearby the river.

Gin’s gaze snapped to the river itself in an instant, and he leaned forward in real life with his eyes firmly fixated on his screen as he considered something he never had before - something that might just deliver him from this situation.

The first raiders began to climb onto the hill, hopping onto jutting out blocks of dirt and stone to ascend the hill and reach their foes atop it. Alice began to get a bit restless, knowing that it wasn’t safe to hide on top of the hill for much longer, and tried to think of what to do. “Per-perhaps if I…” he muttered as he started to dig the dirt away from the ground behind him, and tried using it to build a shoddy barricade of sorts to keep the raiders from reaching the top.

His efforts turned out to amount to quite a bit, as he managed to make a two-block high wall on the side of the hill the raiders were climbing up that should keep them down. Thanks to that, the two players were perfectly safe for now and were free to think over some sort of strategy without having to worry about the raiders, so long as neither of them decided to leave their safe zone for some reason.

“I’m going to the river, meow!” Gin cried out as his Minecraft avatar ran off the side of the hill and barrelled his way to the ground, taking minor negligible points of fall damage as he hit blocks on the side of the hill.

“W-what are you doing, Gin Ibushi!?” Alice reacted with bewilderment, watching Gin leave the comfort and safety of the hill for unknown reasons. “This is highly irresponsible!”

“There’s no time to explain, woof!” Gin replied as he hit the ground running, speeding off into the distance towards the river.

“Of course. There never is.” Alice mournfully recognized before hopping off the hill as well, though a little more cautiously than Gin did. As a result however, upon reaching ground level the raiders had almost reached him after similarly dismounting the hill. Realising that he had to get a move on, Alice double tapped W in pursuit of Gin to figure out what in the world the boy had to do at the river.

Gin naturally reached the river before Alice did, and immediately scoured it for a specific block he was currently in desperate need of. His eyes landed on it quite quickly, and he practically pounced upon the gravel blocks that lined the river, feverishly punching them in a bid to take them for his own. Alice had caught up to him, and upon seeing Gin trying to gather up gravel, nervously frowned.  
“No matter how much flint we obtain, without feathers it is impossible to create arrows! You are carrying out a fool’s errand!”

Despite Alice’s words, Gin kept on digging, but stopped after obtaining a meagre two blocks of gravel. He placed them back onto the ground in between himself and Alice, desperately breaking and replacing them over and over again in hopes of obtaining flint before the horde caught up with them.

Though he didn’t quite comprehend Gin’s goal in all this, Alice decided he might as well help, and assisted Gin with breaking the gravel to effectively double the speed they could break and replace it. Eventually, one of the gravel blocks broke down into a shard of flint which Gin hurriedly gathered up. 

Still needing one more, he continued destroying and placing the remaining block of gravel while the raiders slowly approached. Alice turned around and nervously watched the raiders gain on them. Thankfully, the single vindicator in the crowd wasn’t close enough to begin charging towards the two Minecraft veterans, which bought Gin a little bit more time to get the second piece of flint.

And get that piece of flint he did, as he soon saw it drop to the floor unceremoniously right as the duo were about to be forced to engage with the opposing army. Gin still wasn’t quite ready to pack things up and run however, as he quickly used four wooden planks to craft a crafting table and slammed it down. He used the flint he had obtained and some wood to create a very special block that held the key to escaping from this dire situation alive, though as he was creating it, an impulse to craft something else while he had the chance overtook him when he looked at a certain valuable resource in his inventory.

“Alice! Take this, woof!” Gin shouted as his Minecraft avatar threw a diamond sword to his ally. Alice grabbed the legendary artifact from the floor and put it into his hotbar with all the pride of a newly-knighted member of the round table. He held it in his right hand just in time for the vindicator to be upon the unlikely pair, and with merely a few critical strikes, Alice struck down the infidel with his holy diamond blade of justice.

“This way, meow!” Gin instructed as his Minecraft avatar set off in a full sprint towards the villager houses, iron pickaxe in hand. Alice was close behind, as while he did quite fancy the idea of taking his new diamond sword out for more of a test drive, he understood that engaging the horde head on was just about the worst thing he could do right now.

Gin arrived amongst the houses and, if he had the means to, surely would’ve kicked down the door as he charged into one and completely obliterated the villager’s existing work block that they had in their home. Left without a purpose in life, the villager became unemployed and was seeking new jobs. Gin used his mouse wheel to cycle his hotbar down to the block he had created earlier, and replaced the villager’s old work block with it. As it turned out, Gin had used the flint and wood to craft a fletcher’s table. The villager reacted with interest, interacting with the block and becoming a fletcher.

Alice was waiting outside, diamond sword in one hand and his shield firmly in the other as the raiders began entering from the mouth of the village, about to pour into the street where Alice stood. He couldn’t afford to run away however, as it would surely spell disaster for Gin when he tried to leave the house he had entered. All he could do was hold his ground, and battle off as many raiders as he could until Gin was finished. He held right click to raise his shield high, successfully blocking some arrows shot by crossbow wielding pillagers.

Gin wasted no time in right clicking on the villager who’s future prospects and plans for retirement he had changed within the span of two seconds, and shoved every emerald he had into his arms, in exchange for what was currently an invaluable resource.

Increasingly more arrows battered against Alice’s shield, and while for now he was holding strong, that would surely change by the time the witch wisened up and tossed a splash potion of harming at him, or god forbid when the ravager finally caught up to everyone else.

A bead of sweat ran down his brow as he began to involuntarily envision the millions of ways this could go wrong, from his shield breaking to the witch slowing him down enough to get outrun by the ravager, but thankfully, none of them would come to fruition just yet.

Gin heroically burst out of the house he was previously inside, a loaded crossbow in hand. With a single click of the right mouse button, an arrow soared through the air towards the Ravager, safely dealing moderate damage to it and minorly knocking it backwards.

“I-inconceivable!” Alice cried out, in awe at Gin’s ingenuity. “To think… using the villagers themselves to provide us with such a valuable weapon… I never would’ve thought of such a genius tactic, not even in a million years!”

Ranger scowled and tutted. If he’d known Gin was just going to pull something like this, maybe he wouldn’t have bothered starting the raid. The way things were going, the group might actually come out of this better off than they were before, and that was a thought the orange doll could hardly bear.

“To the hill, meow!” Gin instructed, eager to put some distance between himself and the raiders now that he had a way to attack from afar. Alice heard him loud and clear, and the two of them sought solace within the soft, comforting and proverbial arms of the hill.

By climbing up the side of it to avoid Alice’s barricade, the two of them managed to mount the hill once more. Gin placed a block behind the wall to allow himself to climb on top of it and look at the raiders below - as well as take potshots with his crossbow whenever he could. Alice extended the barricade so that it covered all sides of the hill before hopping on top of it too, waiting for a raider to get close enough to get whacked off the side by his diamond sword, resulting in them taking a heaping of fall damage along with the damage dealt by his illustrious weapon.

Right as the final arrow struck the ravager, Alice had finished dispatching the smaller enemies. The third wave was over for good, and many breathed a deep sigh of relief to see Alice and Gin momentarily escape from harm. Alice’s Minecraft avatar turned to look at Gin’s, who was still looking down at the village below which was now littered with a few more emeralds and experience orbs.

Gin’s Minecraft avatar turned to look at Alice. “Don’t worry, meow. I still have plenty of arrows, woof!” he asserted, which quelled a worry Alice didn’t even realise he had.  
“Ah… excellent.” Alice replied. In truth, he was looking at Gin with a strange sense of admiration, and not out of concern. If anything, the concern should’ve been on Gin’s end, as Alice hadn’t done nearly as much to prove that he could survive in the raid as Gin had. Alice frowned as he thought on that for a moment, but his train of thought was interrupted when Gin spoke up once more.

“The fourth wave is almost here, meow!” he warned, as it would be only moments before more raiders began spawning on the horizon. Alice grunted in understanding and watched the village below with Gin, waiting for the raiders to appear.

Surprisingly, the fourth wave proved largely uneventful. As this wave didn’t contain a ravager, Alice and Gin found it a largely effortless affair, as Alice could knock away the vindicators and witches that got close while Gin could engage in sniper duels with the five pillagers from afar. Without taking a single point of damage between them, they managed to clear the fourth wave easily.

“Hah!” Alice guffawed. “If these pathetic raiders wish to defeat us, they shall require a lot more firepower than that!”

“Yeah!” Gin agreed. “We might actually be able to do this, meow!” Some others around the table encouraged the impromptu village defenders (though, mostly Gin) however a certain doll wasn’t so ready to give them pats on the back and tell them that they’re going to be okay. Ranger leaned forward, resting his chin on the back of a gloved hand while he watched his screen intently, which showed him a birdseye view of the village Gin and Alice were in. Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, Safalin turned her gaze to Ranger, making sure he wasn’t causing more trouble. Ranger didn’t reach for his keyboard this time however, and it seemed that he was content with just watching and seeing how this plays out.  
When the fifth wave bared down upon the duo, neither had to warn the other. Instead, they both got into their positions, ready for whatever was to come next.

The duo frowned uncomfortably upon seeing that this raid did in fact include a ravager, who this time appeared to be carrying a pillager on its back, but Gin resolved himself and began loading arrows into his crossbow, preparing to fire as many shots as he needed into the beast and its rider until both of them fell down and died. Meanwhile, Alice steeled himself atop the wall, ready for the pillagers and vindicators to crawl up the hill, only to get knocked back down. As they got closer, he was able to conduct a headcount. Discounting the one atop the ravager, it seemed like there were five of the crossbow wielding pillagers, as well as five of the vindicators. There was also a witch among them, and most strikingly, a mysterious enemy who he at first mistook for a vindicator, before realising that it was wearing a strange robe instead of the usual vindicator attire.

Gin’s arrows flew forward, striking the ravager and the pillager atop it, dealing severe damage to both over time. However, right as he was about to fire what may have been the finishing blow, he found his shot intercepted when a small, ghost like apparition blocked his shot with its own body. He squinted in confusion before he realised what he was looking at. At the same time, Alice began shouting again.

“What-what in the world!? That robe wearing raider has just cast some nefarious spell! He has conjured these troublesome angels from nowhere!” Three of the apparitions floated near the robe-wearing raider, but were making their way towards Alice and Gin at an alarming speed.

“Vexes!” Gin cried out, prompting Alice to cock an eyebrow and glance up at Gin in slight confusion - that didn’t seem like the typical swear a twelve year old would use. Gin recognized his confusion, and clarified himself, “No, I mean, those things are called vexes, meow! They’re going to get over our wall, woof!”

Gin’s point was proven quite quickly when the vexes soared over the wall and threatened to collide with the defenders. Alice hadn’t put up his shield quite as quickly as Gin had, and found himself struck and pushed backwards by one of the vexes. He took four and a half hearts of damage which was partially healed instantly as he had a full bar of hunger, but it was still cause for alarm.

He hit the ground safely and kept his shield up. Two of the vexes were on him, but he was having a bit of trouble keeping track of them as they kept flying above and behind him. He tried to turn with them however, as he didn’t want them striking him from behind. The two of them entered his sights and at a moment when they weren’t charging him, Alice lowered his shield and delivered two swift swipes to the both of them with his diamond sword, which felled both of them.

“Ah! These vexes appear to be as frail as they look! Merely two swipes of a sword can vanquish them!” Alice announced, but he didn’t get word of acknowledgement from Gin. He turned around, and quickly realised why, as Gin was currently fending off the singular vex he was battling, as the crossbow had too long a charge time to safely take one out.

Alice crept up from behind the vex as it haplessly slashed at Gin’s shield with its iron sword. With a short hop, Alice brought his diamond sword down upon it, landing a critical strike and immediately taking out the last remaining vex.

Gin breathed out a short sigh of relief, but there wasn’t much time to recuperate. As the vexes were infinitely respawning enemies, they hadn’t actually made any progress on the raid proper. Both adventurers hopped back onto the wall and looked down the hill. Raiders were crawling up it bit by bit, however the ravager and the robe-wearing raider were at the foot of the hill, contributing however they could. Alice began knocking down the small fries while Gin recognized the true threat within the horde, and began firing arrows at the robe-wearer. He managed to get a good few shots in before another three vexes were being conjured. As a sound effect is played every time vexes are summoned, Alice noticed that more vexes were coming.

“Defend yourself, Gin Ibushi! I shall handle the vexes!” he insisted, prompting Gin to move along the wall to keep his distance from Alice and the vexes, raising his shield in their direction. When the vexes reached the wall, Alice spared one slash to one of them to gain the ire of the three of them. With his shield up, he followed their movements and slashed whenever safe in order to effectively dispatch them.

Recognizing that there was no threat of the vexes suddenly deciding to aggro onto him, Gin put his shield back down and instead resumed shooting arrows down into the crowd below. A couple more arrows was all it took for the spellcasting raider to succumb to his injuries, his body turning red and falling to the ground in a puff of smoke.

“Yes!” Gin cheered. “I killed the evoker, woof!” he celebrated, but wasted no more time in firing arrows towards the ravager as well. Alice had just about finished up with the vexes, tearing the last one asunder with his diamond sword and watching it disappear.  
“We need not worry about those apparitions any longer! This wave is as good as complete!” Alice asserted, resuming his previous strategy of knocking smaller enemies off the hill until they die from accumulated damage. With Gin attacking big targets and Alice attacking small ones, it didn’t take long at all before the fifth wave ended. 

Alice ate some bread to refill the rest of his health bar, as it had depleted somewhat during the fifth wave. It took merely moments for his health to return to maximum, and the two adventurers steeled themselves for the sixth wave.

As it turned out, the sixth wave was, in essence, the fifth wave except easier. There was no ravager, and two less vindicators than the fifth wave held, without any extra additions to balance out the difficulty. As such, the wave was cleared with very little effort, as Gin was able to snipe the evoker from afar while Alice cleaned up as usual.

As the final raider of the sixth wave went down, both Alice and Gin felt a simultaneous wave of relief and anxiety. Even though he hadn’t ever seen what the seventh wave looks like, Alice could easily predict that it was going to be brutally difficult, despite what the sixth wave had turned out to be. He could only imagine what laid in store as he stared down at the empty village below, his heart quickening in anticipation of the final wave.

“This… this is it, meow.” Gin breathed out, prompting Alice to nod slowly. “We’ve come this far, woof… There’s no way we’ll fall at the finish line, meow!” the young boy asserted resolutely. While Alice nodded along with his assertion, he would be lying to himself if he said he truly believed in Gin’s words. All either of them could do for now was hold fast and wait to see what the final wave had in store for them. Some people around the table encouraged the duo with words such as “you’ve got this!” and “come home safe, ya’hear?”, but it provided little comfort for the convict as his body continued to lightly and subtly tremble.

There was no more time left to prepare as the countdown finished, the seventh and final wave of raiders being unleashed upon the village.  
Alice’s fears weren’t at all eased when he saw just who he was up against. He counted three crossbow wielders, six vindicators, two witches, two evokers, and two ravagers, with an extra vindicator each on top.  
He gritted his teeth in anticipation and held his diamond sword high, ready to play the best Minecraft of his life.

Arrows fired off, soaring through the air towards the evokers on the ground. Gin only managed to land one hit on each one before they summoned vexes, completely blocking Gin’s line of fire. He scowled and tried shooting elsewhere, but the vexes had deceptively large hitboxes, and kept getting in the way of his shots.

Meanwhile, Alice was dispatching vindicators and witches left and right, making sure that nothing that got near that wall left it alive. Unfortunately, his focus on his task made him unable to notice Gin’s aiming plight.

The vexes had fully aggroed onto Gin, and were beginning to approach the wall. Even though Gin knew he’d soon have to engage in close combat, he wondered if he could perhaps get one more cheap shot in against one of the raiders. He loaded an arrow into his crossbow cautiously as the translucent figures of the vexes drew ever nearer, and fired it off quickly so that he could try to focus on blocking. Unfortunately, the arrow was absorbed by one of the approaching vexes who proceeded to strike Gin before he could shield himself, and knocked him backwards onto the top of the hill.

Hearing the distinct sound of a Minecraft avatar taking damage, Alice turned to his left and was perturbed to see Gin getting swarmed by six vexes. Gin had his shield up, but blocking hits from every direction was proving to be troubling for the young boy.

“Uh… Ah… Erm…” Alice sputtered as he thought of what to do. He quickly finished off a witch that was pathetically trying to get past the wall, and hopped off it in a bid to assist his partner. He slashed at the crowd of vexes with his diamond sword, but merely found that his strike was instead absorbed by Gin’s shield when his target had swiftly moved out of his way. Alice rapidly pressed the left mouse button, swinging his diamond sword through the air with reckless abandon in an attempt to gain the attention of the vexes and give Gin a well earned breather. Thankfully, as Gin had his shield up, any strikes that went wide didn’t contribute to Gin’s critical state, and were merely nullified by his defensive stance. Eventually, Alice managed to prod one of the spry apparitions with his sword, and they all turned their attention onto him, turning red and charging.

Alice paced backwards slightly before raising his shield to absorb the mini-sword strikes from all around while Gin ate bread to recover his health. Alice was doing a decent job of holding off the vexes, which bought Gin enough time to restore his health to the maximum. Bravely, Gin loaded another arrow into his crossbow and fired it into the vex swarm, striking one of them and dealing mortal damage thanks to arrows that had struck it before. The five remaining vexes changed targets, rushing towards the younger boy who had once again raised his shield. This was a tedious and demanding process, but maybe they could stall things out just long enough to take all of the vexes down. Just as Gin was thinking that, a familiar sound effect rang out throughout the village - one that signalled that a group of vexes had been summoned. Three more vexes surged over the wall, assisting in the assault on the young boy, who was beginning to struggle to fend them off.  
“But how could this be!?” Alice thought. From what he had seen, each evoker should only be able to summon one group of vexes until that group had died. Since there were still five vexes remaining, there shouldn’t have been any way for a third group to spawn, as there were only two evokers!

Alice’s heart dropped as he suddenly realised something, the mental image of the seventh wave’s raider loadout flashing through his mind. He had made a crucial error while conducting a headcount of the wave, bred from his haste in looking over his enemies. That wasn’t a second vindicator he had seen perched atop that ravager. It was an evoker.

As Alice was realising his mistake, Gin was trying to fend off eight angry little ghost gremlin men, and wasn’t doing a fantastic job. He was blocking just about every hit, yes, but he’d been using his shield a lot over the course of this raid, and it was getting closer and closer to breaking with every extra strike it endured.

“A-Alice…” Gin muttered nervously, as he watched his shield’s durability bar inch ever lower and lower. The sound of Gin’s voice broke Alice from his internal machinations, and he finally processed what was right before him.

The eight vexes swirled around a distressed Gin as the constant sounds of a shield blocking blow after blow filled the air. Alice stood still, teeth clenched as he tried to decide what to do.

“I… I won’t last much longer, m-meow!” Gin warned, desperation clear in his voice. “H-help me, woof!” he cried out, but Alice still didn’t move. He was in striking distance, yet something was stopping him from taking the heat from Gin.

Eight vexes was a lot, and Alice’s own shield wasn’t exactly in perfect condition either. If he took the aggro from Gin, it’s very possible that he would die to the hands of the vexes. Though, at the same time, if he didn’t help Gin, it could spell the end for Gin instead. His mind raced, his heart sped up, and time almost seemed to slow down as he considered all possible options.

...No. There was only one real option. Gin had shown unparalleled bravery throughout the entire raid, as well as strategic ingenuity. Not to mention, he was still just a child. If Alice was just going to stand here and watch as a child far stronger than himself fade away because somebody failed to protect him, then what kind of man would be _be!?_

Right as the sound of a shield breaking echoed through the air, Alice charged forward and heroically swung his diamond sword with reckless abandon, ready to accept whatever consequences would await him for saving Gin’s life. So long as one of them made it out alive, this would all be worth it.

The entire room went deathly silent. Not a single person dared speak, their eyes wide and their mouths frozen half-agape, unable to produce any sound even if they wanted to. Even Ranger could hardly believe his eyes as he stared blankly at his laptop screen.

Alice couldn’t breathe. Not a single part of his body was moving, completely paralyzed. There was no way. That was impossible, he told himself. That didn’t just happen.

But no amount of lying to himself changed the reality of the situation. Alice’s body finally regained movement as he blinked rapidly as if what he was seeing was just a hallucination that would go away if he just willed it to. His fingers began twitching as he took a shaky breath and broke the silence.

“I… I… I didn’t mean to…” he pathetically spilled out. “I…”

Laid in front of his Minecraft avatar were the scattered contents of Gin’s inventory, left discarded on the floor without anyone to hold them. The vexes that once menaced Gin dissipated, going their own ways and disappearing into the distance without anyone to focus on.

The awful news of what had just transpired was spread to everyone else through a haunting message automatically sent in the in-game chat, and so everyone sat in shocked silence, unsure of what to say. How could they possibly say anything after that?

However, the shock wore off a little bit quicker on a certain someone.

“...What a _betrayal!_ ” Ranger chimed, broaching the atmosphere. “I never saw _this one_ coming!”

“It-it was an accident!” Alice desperately protested.

“That’s not what the evidence says!” Ranger retorted. “It says it right here: Gin Ibushi was slain by Alice Yabusame! How scary!” he taunted.

Gin stared wide eyed in disbelief at his own laptop screen, which was now tinted red following the death of his Minecraft avatar. The reality of the situation was beginning to dawn on him following the initial shock, and he began to tremble and withdraw his arms from his keyboard into himself.

“I’m sure I don’t need to remind you bastards what this means.” Ranger trilled sadistically, feeling a rare thrill as he bathed in the room’s atmosphere.

“It-it means…” Nao whimpered after being silent for so long. “G-Gin’s going to…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish her sentence, but everyone knew how it was going to end anyway.

Safalin slowly rose from her chair with a mournful expression on her face. “Gin Ibushi has failed the final attraction…” she announced, pointing out the painfully obvious. She raised her head to look at the terrified boy before slowly advancing towards him. “Please, come with me…”

As he was quite close to the point of the table where Ranger and Safalin were sitting, Keiji suddenly stood up and positioned himself directly in her path, which startled her. “Nope.” he said dryly.

“E-excuse me?” Safalin said, still minorly surprised. From Ranger’s side of the table, Q-taro stood up as well, even though he was relatively far away from Safalin.  
“Gin ain’t goin’ nowhere with you!”

“Yeah!” Joe shouted as he stood from his own chair, going to backup Keiji. “You’ll-you’ll have to go through us first!” he asserted with his arms crossed, but clearly sounded a little nervous.

“Hey!” Ranger barked from the head of the wish-bone shaped table. “Siddown, meatheads! You’re here to play Minecraft, not play hero!” The three of them paid no heed to Ranger, to his chagrin.

“I… I believe we made ourselves very clear at the beginning of the final attraction. He has failed, so he must face execution. You have no say in this matter.” Safalin claimed, though naturally the three of them weren’t about to just take that for an answer.

Though, despite that claim, it wasn’t exactly as if a frail woman like Safalin could push her way past three men, especially when one of those three men was Q-taro. As it seemed right now, they could definitely prevent her from reaching Gin.

“...Hey…” A voice piped up from the far end of Ranger’s side of the table, causing everyone to suddenly turn and focus their attention on the voice’s owner. “I hate to be the one to point this out, but…” Sou started, looking at Safalin’s side of the table. “Where did Gin go?”

Everyone’s gaze simultaneously shifted to Gin’s chair, which was now empty. On the table in front of it laid his discarded gloves and Mew-chan pillow, from which he was usually inseparable.

“The-the hell!?” Reko exclaimed. “He… he was just there a second ago!” Everyone seemed similarly surprised, not having seen Gin leave the room at all. Safalin’s eyes moved from Gin’s seat to the door to the room they were currently in, noticing it was slightly ajar.

Taking advantage of the distraction, she slipped between Keiji and Joe and ran for the exit as fast as she could before they could react.

“H-hey!” Joe shouted, noticing her run past him. “Stop!” The two of them began running after her, but found themselves stopped in their tracks when their collars began softly beeping, paralyzing both of them in an instant.

Ranger slammed his hand on the table to get everyone’s attention, and had stood up. “Stay right there! I’ve had enough of you bastards ignoring me!” Keiji and Joe craned their bodies around to stare at Ranger. Joe’s teeth were gritted in frustration, and he had to force himself not to keep running after Safalin, who had just disappeared behind the door.

“Participants are _not_ allowed to leave this room until the Ender Dragon is dead! Last time I checked, you bastards hadn’t even made it to the Nether!” Ranger reminded them, holding up a face mask to show an angry, scornful expression. “If you don’t sit back down in your chairs right now and get back to gaming, I won’t hesitate to put the three of you down as well!” he finished, apparently including Q-taro in his demand as well.

An air of silence fell over the room for a few moments as the trio considered Ranger’s threat. Q-taro scowled and hid his eyes with the brim of his cap as he sat back down into his chair, not wanting to face punishment.

“...Guess we have no choice.” Keiji recognized. Joe opened his mouth to protest, but when Keiji affixed him with a strong look accompanied with a strangely powerful yet casual frown, found that he quickly shut up. Keiji sat back down in his chair, and his collar stopped beeping immediately. Joe reluctantly walked back over to his chair and slumped down into it, mentally beating himself up. At the very least however, his collar shut up as soon as he succumbed to Ranger’s demand.

Gin’s breath quickened as soon as he made it past the door into the lobby, adrenaline flowing through him. He wasted no time in sprinting through the lobby, darting around the table and the chairs that stood nearby it. As he ran he gasped for air behind his mask, and found himself bringing a hand up to pull it down to allow himself ease of breathing.

He passed through a doorway into the ruined corridor, nimbly jumping over or stepping past bits of debris on the floor to avoid falling, even in his haste. He began looking behind large rocks restlessly, his breath becoming ragged and heavy purely from the adrenaline rush, as he hadn’t done much to expend his bountiful energy supply yet.

As he was looking behind rocks, he heard fast footsteps behind him, echoing throughout the corridor. He whipped his head around to look behind his shoulder in one swift, fearful motion, and his fears were validated when he saw Safalin coming towards him in a full sprint. He instinctively started running in the other direction but quickly noticed that he was heading for nothing but a dead end. He froze for a moment with his arms outstretched to the side and fists clenched in tension, and it turned out to be a moment too long, as Safalin suddenly grabbed Gin and tried to restrain him. She had a firm grip on his arms, but he struggled and thrashed against her body the best he could.

“Stop-stop struggling!” Safalin shouted, contesting with Gin’s strength. Though Gin was a twelve year old, and as such didn’t have the most strength and stamina in a duel of power, the two of them actually appeared to be on equal ground for the most part.

However, in one swift movement, Gin delivered a harsh stomp to Safalin’s right foot, causing her to exclaim in pain and loosen her grip on the boy. Gin struggled one last time and broke free of her grasp, immediately setting off down the corridor towards the lobby as soon as he was unrestrained. Safalin took off after him the best she could, but her foot was still injured and she found herself thoroughly outpaced by the boy.

Gin didn’t know where he was running anymore, he just knew that he had to get away by all costs. He ran back into the lobby while gasping for air, but didn’t slow down and ran down another random doorway that connected to the lobby.

This time he found himself in the relaxation room, which wasn’t connected to any other rooms apart from the attractions, which had been locked up and closed off following the end of the Sub-Game. Even though there was nowhere to go, Gin didn’t dare turn around and risk getting caught in the lobby by Safalin. He began to devise a plan through his panicked state, and ran as far into the relaxation room as he could, stepping into the artificial courtyard in the process and facing the doorway, ready for when Safalin would step inside.

He didn’t have to wait long at all before she would enter, appearing very disgruntled. To Gin’s surprise though, instead of charging at him again and trying to grapple with him, Safalin instead approached slowly and cautiously, as if approaching a stray cat on the street.

“Please, stop running…” she pleaded. “I need you to come with me…”

Gin stared at her wide eyed for some moments as something began to dawn on him. It was quite strange how she hadn’t just activated Gin’s collar to kill him and called it a job well done. It would certainly be easier than chasing him around the entire third floor with a flattened foot.

Of course, he knew she couldn’t be trusted, but at the very least he liked her a bit more than he did Ranger. In the end, Gin didn’t let his guard down, but also didn’t run away.

“Are… are you gonna kill me, meow?” Gin whispered to her. Safalin didn’t exactly give a straight answer however.

“You can’t ask questions. I just need you to cooperate…”

Gin cautiously nodded at her, showing that he would at least listen.

“Please, come with me… We need to be quick…” she warned, turning towards the lobby doorway. Gin hesitantly decided to follow, as the fact that she evaded his question about his future life prospects heavily unnerved him. Despite that though, even if he did get away from her, how long would he be able to stay away regardless?

Safalin led Gin into the lobby, then through a different doorway into the medical office, where Safalin spent most of her time. Gin seemed confused - he wasn’t sure why she had brought him here at all, until Safalin walked towards a panel at the back of the room. She ran her fingers slowly across the right side of the panel, until she dug the tips of her fingers underneath it and pulled it away from the wall, revealing it to actually be a secret doorway connected to the medical office.

“Right this way…” Safalin muttered, stepping into the passageway and waiting for Gin to enter after her. After a couple seconds of hesitation, Gin stepped forward, entering the passageway with Safalin. She reached forward once both of them were inside, gripping the side of the panel from the inside and gently pulling it closed once more. As the two of them walked down the dark passageway, Gin’s heart beated irregularly and felt a distinct feeling of anxiety wash over him. There was something about this place in particular that didn’t sit right with him, and yet it felt eerily familiar.

As it would turn out though, that familiarity wasn’t enough to prepare him mentally for the shocking sight waiting for him at the end of the passageway.

Alice’s fingers dully drummed against his keyboard and mouse alike as he silently busied himself with finishing what he had started with Gin for the sake of his own survival. Though it felt almost disrespectful, he had taken Gin’s crossbow from the pile of items he left behind, and had used it to dispatch two of the evokers, which made the raid significantly safer. He was able to use his sword to take down small groups of vexes, so he was able to slowly whittle away the health of the last remaining evoker. Once that evoker fell, the rest of the raid posed no difficulty at all, as the remaining raiders were physically unable to hurt him from behind the wall he had constructed prior. As he landed the final hit on the final ravager using Gin’s crossbow, the raid finally came to an end. News of Alice’s achievement was broadcast to the entire server, showing that he had completed the “Hero of the Village” advancement.

Reko scoffed. Some hero he turned out to be.

The sun had begun to set, as the raid had gone on for a painfully long amount of time. Alice left the safety of the hill now that there was no longer a threat, and gathered up the spoils of battle left strewn about at the bottom of the hill. He collected many emeralds, a couple extra crossbows, and strangely, approximately six strange items he had never encountered before, called “Totems of Undying”. He decided they were worth holding onto, even though they would eat up six entire spaces of his inventory, as they didn’t stack.

Alice’s Minecraft avatar looked up to the orange sun above. It would be late soon, and Alice didn’t want to get caught in the middle of the night by some monsters, and not be able to get home. Though, there was an issue. As Alice and Gin had arrived here through a tunnel, the convict wasn’t exactly sure how to get back home, as he hadn’t mapped out the surface.

He cleared his throat, and prepared to break the icy, tension filled silence that was permeating the room. “Um…” he nervously began, feeling the oppressive air heavily. “May… somebody provide me with the coordinates of our base?”

A few seconds passed without a response before Sou pressed the F3 key on his keyboard, which opened the debug menu. Sou located the coordinates and listed them off to Alice, who did his best to memorize them, as the last thing he wanted was to have to ask for them a second time.

“Erm… thank you…” he muttered, though Sou didn’t reply. Alice opened the debug menu and tried to divine his way back to base using the coordinates Sou had given him, and as he surprisingly wasn’t actually that far away relatively speaking, managed to get home before nightfall.

Everyone’s Minecraft avatars were mostly just sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing, as no one was able to focus on the game after what just happened. That is, no one except for one person. Sou was working on a very small scale sugar cane farm on the bank of a river close by their house, but it definitely wouldn’t be enough to fuel an enchantment station, or really anything on a practical scale. It seemed that at the very least farming efforts weren’t slowed during the raid itself, as they had a small pen with three cows and a slightly expanded wheat field near Sou’s diminutive sugar cane farm.

Alice knew the wheat wouldn’t be enough to feed all twelve - no, eleven of them however, so he used a crafting table inside of their house to craft a chest, and placed it outside. He put the bread that he and Gin had crafted earlier inside it, so that everyone else could divide it amongst themselves. He didn’t quite feel ready to individually confront each of them to hand it out personally, so perhaps this was for the best.

Sou finished pruning his sugar cane and moved to the cow pen, with a stone axe in hand. The sight of Sou’s inferior tool made Alice remember to smelt and hand out the iron he had mined as well, so he busied himself with that. Perhaps these menial tasks would serve well to take his mind off of recent events.

Sou faced down one of the cows, and with zero hesitation pressed the spacebar to jump into the air and execute it with a critical strike. He collected the items it dropped and returned to the river, watching the water intently.

The sound of metal creaking gained the attention of those in the room, looking up towards the source of the sound. Safalin had returned to the room alone, with a very familiar folded up piece of cloth in her arms. Many averted their eyes at the sight of it with pained groans or whimpers, turning their eyes back to their screens without anything else to focus on.

Safalin walked back to the head of the table, sitting back in her own seat and handing the cloth off to Ranger, who accepted it with unsettling enthusiasm. He unwrapped it and gladly wore it around his shoulders as Gin had done before him. “Thank you, Safalin!” he chirped in an endlessly annoying and condescending tone.

As Ranger played with and cooed at his newest accessory, Alice was still silently busying himself with smelting the iron and putting it into chests. Sou’s Minecraft avatar entered the house, interacting with the crafting table briefly before he turned to regard Alice.

“...Do you have any obsidian?” he casually asked as he began to type something at length. Alice was a bit taken off guard at being suddenly addressed, but composed himself well enough to respond.

“Erm, yes, just enough to make a portal…” he replied, as he had picked up exactly ten pieces. He hoped that Sou wasn’t planning to make an enchantment table, as they were short in two departments when it came to crafting one of those.

Sou opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly found himself cut off when Nao’s voice suddenly raised to a shout. “After everything that’s just happened, how can you two just… just… _play Minecraft!?_ As if nothing even happened!” she interrupted, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“M-miss Nao…” Mishima quietly spilled out, for once in his life unsure of how to console his former student.

“It’s… it’s not like we have a choice in the matter…” Sou replied feebly. “I’m not doing this because I want to, Miss Nao.”

“I-I know!” she blurted out in response. “But-but can’t we just… just…” Nao’s argument devolved into a whimper as she buried her face in her hands and began sobbing.

Mishima gently extended an arm to his former student in an attempt to comfort her through this trying time. “I… believe what Miss Nao is trying to say is that she thinks everyone needs a moment to… process what happened to Gin.” he parsed.

“I…” Sou began. “I get that, but… it’s not even like we know he’s really dead.”

Everyone suddenly affixed Sou with the most incredulous stare, that froze both him and his train of thought in place for a moment. With the way they were looking at him, you’d think that he’d grown a second head.

“I… I mean…” he started, trying to sort through his thoughts and explain what he meant. “It’s not like we have any proof that anyone else here ever actually died, right?”

A few seconds of deathly awkward silence passed, and Sou was beginning to wish he hadn’t brought that up at all. Still, it was an important thing to consider, as he was about to point out, but somebody broke the silence before him.

“...Dude…” Reko spoke. “Think before you speak.”

“W-what?” Sou replied. He didn’t think what he said was particularly nonsensical, so it seemed strange that everyone was reacting in this way.  
Though, he noticed that everyone wasn’t looking at him anymore. He traced their gazes to the chair next to him, where Kanna was sitting - and immediately realised his mistake.

“O-oh. I’m really sorry, Kanna, I, uh…” he spilled out, fumbling over his words.

“...It’s okay.” Kanna quietly murmured, stopping him from having to finish his jumbled apology.

Silence fell over the room once again, and Sou noticed that it had sort of been wordlessly decided that they were taking a bit of a break in the gameplay to process recent events. Though, there was still one thing he needed to do. He silently flagged down Alice’s Minecraft avatar by punching the air in front of him to get his attention. Alice’s avatar turned to Sou’s, somehow displaying Alice’s feelings of confusion towards this action through the blocky pixels that made up its blank expression. Sou’s Minecraft avatar moved close and dropped something onto the ground at Alice’s feet.

An empty slot in Alice’s hotbar was suddenly filled by a book and quill, of all things. He scrolled down towards the book and with a simple tap of the right mouse button, opened it up to survey the contents.

“DO NOT SPEAK A WORD OF THIS OUTLOUD.” the first line read. Sou certainly knew how to make an eye-catching opener.


	7. Sequence Break

Sou’s arms tightened as he instinctively clutched the laptop closer to his chest and took a step backwards. His eyes remained firmly affixed on the figure lurking in the shadow cloaked corner of the room however, not willing to look away in case it made any sudden movements.

“I repeat.” the person said again as they took a step forward to match Sou’s, stepping further into the red light and allowing it to illuminate their bright apron and cooking utensils held behind their back. “Please put that back. It does not belong to you.” Kai asked in a hauntingly calm yet commanding manner.

“So what?” Sou snapped unsurely. He tried to wear some sort of confident smirk that failed to betray his actual feelings. “You mean to say this is yours?” It was either that or Kai just happened to be vehemently against stealing no matter the circumstance, but that seemed somewhat unlikely.

Kai was silent for a moment, his face frozen in the same neutral expression he seemed to constantly wear. “I see no reason to lie. Yes. It is mine.” he explained.

Sou wasn’t sure if he imagined the way the hand holding the frying pan twitched impatiently or not, but he wasn’t going to take the risk. He gently placed the laptop back on top of the computer tower, but didn’t do so with a light heart.

“There. Safe and sound.” Sou muttered. “But how did it even get here? No one else brought in any personal possessions.” Naturally, Sou couldn’t be more suspicious of Kai at the current moment, but didn’t want to directly voice those suspicions lest they turn out to be justified and he winds up dead even before the Main Game.

“I am not obligated to answer that.” Kai responded simply. “May I ask how _you_ got here, Sou?” he asked, turning the question around somewhat stiffly.

To tell the truth, Sou wanted to throw back the same response that Kai gave him if only for the sake of being snarky, but perhaps it was better to be cooperative right now.

“Well… I found a hidden passage here connected to the kitchen. Miss Nao and her professor know about it too.” he explained, half-poised to sprint back down the stairs he came from. Obliging Kai’s demand made him feel a little bit safer but it still wasn’t out of the question that Kai wanted to make sure no word got out about his presence here.

Kai took another step towards Sou, causing the smaller man to shrivel up a little bit in anticipation of a frying pan strike to the brain stem. Soon however, Kai stopped moving and Sou’s squishy and fragile brain remained mostly operational.

“Do not be alarmed, Sou. I am not your enemy.” Kai spoke in as serene a tone as always. “But perhaps you should head back down. I believe we are not alone here.” Kai explained in an attempt to coerce Sou to go back to everyone else. However, Sou responded all too quickly.

“I know we aren’t. I ran into someone out there earlier.” he blurted out casually. As he’d already shared this information with Nao, it didn’t feel like he had to keep those cards to his chest.

Kai’s expression finally changed, his mouth opening slightly and his eyebrows raising as he lifted his head for merely a couple seconds.

“What?” Sou prodded. “I’ve been here before. Is that so surprising?” he quizzed with a smirk - though this one was a tad more genuine this time.

“No…” Kai muttered as he began, trying to figure out a way to word his thoughts aloud. “I simply find it strange that you were not killed on sight.”

Sou’s smirk immediately vanished, and he nervously scratched at his collar through his scarf at the thought. “W-well... I guess now that you mention it, that is pretty weird.” Sou went on to briefly explain that the person he met had actually done the complete opposite of what Kai would expect - which is to say she went as far as to fix him up after a nasty spill before finally politely asking him to go back to the first floor. 

He flipped up his hair to prove his story using the bandages on his head, an action he regretted when Kai stepped very close to inspect them in the dim light of the room. The smaller man had certainly had enough of people with more power over him stepping into his personal space.

“This is very interesting.” Kai said as he hesitantly stepped back to let Sou breathe. Despite the deadpan tone in his voice, he seemed to genuinely mean it. “Sou, do you remember what happened in the Pink Room?” he asked.

Sou nodded quickly, not sure where he might be going with this. “How could I forget?” he quipped, though Kai ignored that comment entirely.

“That woman seemed deeply frustrated that every single one of us avoided death. And yet, she did not simply kill one of us herself, much like the person you encountered outside this room. Why do you think that is?” Kai asked, though Sou had the feeling that he’d already figured it all out. Perhaps he was looking for someone to validate his theory.

“Isn’t it possible she just… couldn’t?” Sou posited.

“Unlikely.” Kai all too quickly claimed, making Sou jump slightly. “Assuming she did not possess the power to kill one of us on the spot, what would have been her plan had one of us been chosen to die?”

Sou frowned and shook his head. “No, I mean… I don’t doubt she had the means to kill one of us, I mean… what if she wasn’t, you know…”

“Allowed to?”

“...Yeah. I mean, we know for a fact she’s not our only captor now - I always doubted one person could do all this alone anyway. It’s possible there’s somebody higher up who won’t let us die unless we vote on it.” There were a few leaps in logic there for sure, such as how they shouldn’t have bothered with the First Trials at all if they really were so insistent on this whole majority vote nonsense, but no other possibility was leaping out right now.

Kai closed his eyes for a moment as he lowered his head to think. An impulse that told Sou to act fast and disarm Kai of his cooking utensils while he was in thought to even the power dynamic in the room ran through his head, but he managed to ignore it.

The feeling of danger had seemed to disappear for now, and Sou didn’t feel it necessary to put a gap in the trust between himself and a potential ally just to make himself safer in the moment, even if Kai’s actions so far seemed exceptionally suspicious.

...Strange, Sou thought. It wasn’t like him to disregard something like that.

“Certainly.” Kai suddenly said, causing Sou to recoil in surprise as Kai’s eyes reopened to fixate on him once again. “Let’s say this is the case, that our kidnappers may not harm us without our own vote. What does this mean for us?” he posited. It was an interesting question, and thankfully Sou had already thought that far ahead.

Sou casually leaned towards the glowing computer tower, placing his right hand on it to balance himself and causing his wrist to become fully illuminated in the red light.

“It’s simple. We just-”

“...Sou?” Kai abruptly interrupted, a hint of emergency in his voice.

“W-what?”

“What happened to your wrist?”

Reko stormed back into the cafeteria, Gin by her side. The two of them had looked absolutely everywhere for that beanie wearing freak, but he was still nowhere to be seen. At this point, Reko didn’t know if she wanted to find him to chew him out for throwing bottles around or if she just wanted to know and have peace of mind that he wasn’t getting up to anything for once.

There was also the matter that having two missing people was incredibly disconcerting, though Sou had gone missing twice now and showed back up each time. Why would he disappear for good this third time?

Reko shook herself from her thoughts upon seeing Gin through the kitchen window, diligently looking under countertops and inside of fridges. She realised that she had just been sitting here doing nothing other than imagining Sou’s smarmy little face and had just left Gin to investigate on his own, so she walked with slight urgency into the kitchen to join the small cat-like boy.

“...He’s not here, meow.” Gin said with a sense of finality as he gave a very gentle slam to the refrigerator door using his right hand, which was still inside the ridiculously sized glove made to look like a cat paw. “And I really thought he’d be in there too…” he grumbled.

“Then what the hell was Nao talking about!?” Reko impatiently snapped, crossing both arms under her chest as she surveyed the kitchen from the single spot she was standing at near the door. Earlier, she and Gin had asked just about everyone if they had seen Sou and or Kai anywhere. When they got to Nao, she nervously and vaguely said that Sou “probably went to the kitchen”. When Reko told her that she’d already investigated the kitchen, like, three times now, Nao just told her to “keep trying” and gave her a weird smile. The hell did that mean!?

“I’m worried, woof…” Gin mournfully admitted, causing Reko to realise he was now standing directly in front of her. She unfolded her arms and looked down at the boy, trying her best to look gentle.

“‘Bout what?” she asked, prompting a somewhat indignant reply from Gin.

“Apron guy and beanie guy, meow! We haven’t seen them in ages! They could be in trouble, woof!” he huffed. His anger didn’t last long though, and his expression just returned to his previous grief-stricken one, though now also because he hadn’t thought up more creative nicknames for the two of them yet.

“...Uh…” Reko mumbled as she tried to think of what to say. Damn, this was hard. She never really thought she was particularly _bad_ with kids, but most of the children she’s talked to weren’t under the impression that two people they talked to earlier that day might be in mortal peril.

“...There there?” she decided on. “I dunno about Kai, but the other guy’s kept on disappearing and reappearing whether you want him to or not, so he’ll show up again eventually.” It wasn’t really that comforting a thought, but no one could say she didn’t try.

The cat ears on top of Gin’s hood flopped over as he lowered his head, staring at his plush cushion as he paced around the room lost in thought. Reko wasn’t really sure if what she said helped all that much, so she just awkwardly leaned against a counter and decided it might be best to leave the boy to his thoughts for now.

...Hm? Reko furrowed her brow as she looked away from the still-pacing boy to the ceiling. She might’ve just been imagining it, but she could’ve sworn she heard something come from the ceiling.

...There it was again. Some kind of metallic thumping sound rang out from above the kitchen, but this one felt closer. Gin had stopped pacing now, clearly having noticed it too. The sound rang out a couple more times, getting closer each iteration. Reko walked in the direction the sound was coming from, ending up at the far right side of the room.

She placed her right hand on the blue refrigerator as she looked up into the dark abyss of the large vent above it. It definitely sounded like something was inside of it, but she had no way of seeing what.

Suddenly, a shoe descended from the vent, causing Reko to yelp and quickly jump backwards, clutching the wrist belonging to her narrowly-not-crushed hand with her left. Gin also recoiled, startled by the way Reko screamed and retreated from the threat to her hand bones. A second shoe stepped down onto the refrigerator, and a figure began lowering itself off of the fridge onto the safe kitchen floor. It wasn’t long before Reko and Gin saw a familiar warm coloured apron, and a pair of calloused hands carrying numerous cooking utensils.

Kai stood before them, his clothes neat and his expression neutral and unbothered, despite the absurd action he had just taken. Just as Reko and Gin had registered Kai’s presence in the room, Sou began lowering himself into the kitchen as well, though stopped in a crouch on top of the countertop next to the refrigerator. He seemed many times more disgruntled than Kai, his clothes rustled and his expression showing that he was just as shocked to see Reko and Gin here as they were to see him.

A few beats of silence permeated the room, before Sou awkwardly smiled and tried to broach the atmosphere. “I-I found Kai.”

“... _Long-haired_ apron guy!” Gin happily exclaimed, running up to Kai and smiling up at him through his mask. “You’re alive!” he pointed out, paying absolutely no heed to Sou. Maybe Reko had reassured him about Sou after all.

Kai seemed moderately taken aback for once as he looked down at the excited child. “Yes. I am alive.” he rigidly confirmed.

Reko shook her head with her teeth grit as she brought herself back to reality and raised her voice. “Wait-wait, hold up a second! The hell were you two doing!?”

“W-what?” Sou stammered as he left his countertop perch and stood on the kitchen floor where he belonged. Reko’s question wasn’t exactly difficult to answer, but Sou was still a bit concussed by the situation as a whole, so to speak. Also, his eyes hurt.

“We were emerging from a hidden passageway that leads to another floor above us.” Kai explained without really telling Reko much at all. “I apologise if my absence was worrying.”

“Hidden- another- what?” Reko spluttered out, not quite wrapping her head around this. “How did you two even know about this!?” she shouted. Perhaps the whole bottle thing could wait.

“I, you know… just sort of found it.” Sou claimed.

“You just found something like _THAT_ by accident?” Reko folded her arms under her chest again as she questioned Sou in disbelief.

“Yeah. What are you _expecting_ to hear?” Sou said, muttering the latter part. “Seriously, ask Miss Nao or her professor. They’ll tell you the same thing.”

Reko pursed her lips as she finally took a moment to think. Nao was the one to direct her to this place in search of Sou, so that adds up… Sou could’ve just pretended to discover it in front of Nao and Mishima, but what would be the point if he already knew it was there? Though, that bottle thing is still sort of psyching her out...

She sighed. “Fine. Did‘ya find anything up there at least?” A hidden floor sounded like it’d be packed full of clues and secrets, so she was sort of eager to find out if the two of them learned anything during their moment up there. Sou made an attempt to hide the way he rolled his eyes at the idea of having to explain the whole shebang yet another time, but Kai spoke before he did.

“Perhaps we should wait for everyone to be present before explaining Sou’s findings.” he suggested. “What we have to say is very important, so it is essential that all are here to hear it.”

Well, that made sense to her at least. She eased off, willing to hear the two of them out when they were ready.

“May I ask for your assistance?” Kai asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Wh-what? Me?” Reko asked, glancing to Gin in case Kai meant him instead.

“Yes. Could you help us gather everybody in the room where we all met?” he politely asked of her. She had the feeling that she wasn’t exactly obligated to help, but at the same time, wasn’t inclined to turn him down.

“...Yeah, alright.” she nodded. “Think I can do that.” There was no denying she had some talent when it came to highly aggressive vocalization, so she could definitely make sure the call to rendezvous reached everyone’s ears. 

Everyone left the kitchen, letting Reko take the lead as she slowly patrolled the facility, her arms raised to form a cup around her mouth as she loudly announced that Kai had returned, and asked for everyone to meet on the first floor.

A short while earlier, a group of five were cramped into the second floor hallway, where they were confronted by three doors. Joe was stationed in front of a black door, while Gonbee was crouched in front of a white one. Both men were diligently working the combination locks that sealed each door in hopes that they’d just accidentally stumble across the right answer, though it was seeming more likely that the steel locks would just crumble into dust and disappear from all the usage before that ever happened.

It wasn’t as if they were working ineffectively, though. Early on, Joe had decided to make a competition out of who could get the right answer first, igniting a fire in Gonbee’s heart as the two of them began cracking codes like they’d never done before. All the while, the three remaining people here had nothing to do but watch over the two of them and make sure Gonbee didn’t get up to anything unscrupulous.

“...Would like to point out again…” Keiji grumbled, reiterating his point for what felt like the millionth time. “There’s gotta be a clue somewhere.”

Gonbee huffed as his fingers stopped moving for merely a split-second before he continued entering codes. “We have investigated every inch of this accursed building. There is no such clue to be found!” he boisterously claimed. “And if there was, shouldn’t you be looking for it yourself instead of standing around doing nothing?” he pointed out.

“No can do.” Keiji casually replied. “Can’t just let Sara and Kanna look after you, can I now?” He looked next to him, where Sara was staring ahead at the two men working the locks. She was admittedly sort of itching to go investigate somewhere else, but there wasn’t any point when they had already seen everything there was to see.

Kanna was wordlessly standing behind Sara, not wanting to get too close to Keiji or Gonbee, as they were easily the third and first most intimidating people here respectively. She wanted to keep her distance from almost everyone though, so it wasn’t saying much. The poor girl was just like some kind of small traumatized spectre, always following Sara or Nao a safe distance from behind.

Gonbee scowled at Keiji’s word-choice of “look after you” as if their intention was to take care of him instead of limiting his movements.

Joe wanted to mention that he was here to keep an eye on Gonbee as well, but decided he had something marginally more important to say.

“Well, it’s not like it’s that unexpected for whoever’s behind this to make us put in… what, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine combinations, is it? They made Sara and I go through something way worse!” Joe mentioned as he tried to ignore the way his fingers felt like they were about to snap in half. He couldn’t wait to make Keiji take over for him, once he gave up on the race.

Gonbee opened his mouth to complain about how his legs were hurting from the way he was crouching down for so long, but he suddenly heard a voice that made his entire body seize up at once.

Reko’s voice travelled up the stairwell all the way to the second floor, allowing everyone there to clearly hear her call to gather on the floor below. Joe let go of the lock as he looked towards the other end of the hallway, allowing the lock to fall back and clang lightly against the door it was connected to.

“Huh. Guess something’s happening.” Keiji recognized as Joe stood up and stretched, glad to have something to distract from the monotonous task.

Keiji turned to walk down the hallway, sparing a final glance over his shoulder at Gonbee and doing a “come hither” gesture in his direction. While he was turned around, he felt something almost ethereal touch his leg for just a moment before the feeling disappeared.

“Hm?” he grunted as he looked towards his feet to find out what happened. He barely caught a glimpse of green hair as a tiny figure ran to hide behind Sara’s right leg, and realised what happened. “Whoops.” he grumbled with a smile. “Sorry, Kanna. I’ll watch where I’m going next time.” he promised, though Kanna didn’t respond. He decided that was fine though as he, Kanna and Sara set off towards the first floor.

Joe was about to tag along right behind them, but noticed a notable lack of movement in his peripheral vision. He glanced to his side, seeing that Gonbee still hadn’t so much as moved a muscle. He cocked an eyebrow and pursed his lips slightly as he stood over his paralyzed form, his hands on his own hips.

“...Hey, Gonbee.” he started, causing the other man to suddenly snap to attention. “Didn’t ‘ya hear? You can give that lock a break for now.” His tone was friendly, but he didn’t exactly flash a smile or crack a joke like he did for Sara. He was more than willing to cooperate with Gonbee, but it was going to take some effort to earn his full trust.

“...Oh! Of course.” Gonbee mumbled. “...Erm, let us be off.” he awkwardly mumbled as he stood up, keeping his head down as he shuffled off down the hallway. Joe watched him leave for a couple moments before shrugging and following a safe distance behind him. Man, that guy was weird.

It didn’t take long for people from every section of the facility to gather in the main entrance when beckoned there by Reko. Sou complained under his breath about how loud she was being and tried to pull his beanie over his ears when she first started doing it, but it didn’t help much. Kai on the other hand was completely unphased, but Gin even decided to help shout as well, though his cries didn’t travel nearly as far thanks to the mask that came with his cat outfit.

Soon enough, the four of them were just part of a large circle gathered in the middle of the room, made up out of every ally they had met here over the past day.

“So…” Gonbee grumbled, being the first to speak. He folded his arms as he looked Kai up and down, taking in all there was to see of him. “You are this ‘Kai’ I have heard so much about, correct?”

Kai didn’t so much as nod as he stiffly replied to Gonbee’s unnecessary question. “Yes. I am Kai.”

“Hey…” Sou interrupted from Kai’s other side. “I’m sure you two have a whole lot to catch up on but, y’know…” He tapped his right foot to the ground somewhat impatiently, but didn’t look at Gonbee as he did so.

“Of-of course…” Gonbee sheepishly mumbled, allowing the meeting to begin as intended.

Kai took a step forward to face the group and briefly closed his eyes to clear his mind before speaking. “Thank you all for coming.” Kai began flatly, though sincerely. “Sou and I have-”

“So what’s this all about?” Q-taro interrupted rudely, clearly not paying full attention.

“As I was saying, Sou and I have been discussing-”

“Q-taro! Shut up!” Reko angrily hissed.

“Guys.” Keiji said sternly. “Let him talk.”

Silence fell over the room as Kai closed his eyes serenely for a couple seconds to once more clear his mind of any steeping frustrations. “Thank you.” he gently said.

“Sou and I have been discussing, and we believe it would be best if everyone ceased investigating the first and second floor.” he explained.

Joe breathed a sigh of relief and very quietly muttered “oh thank god” under his breath, endlessly glad that he doesn’t have to input another code into that accursed lock.

Some other murmuring happened around the room, followed by quiet hushing.

“Interesting.” Keiji muttered, noticing the implication that a third floor existed. “Why’s that?”

Kai looked to Sou expectantly, who took a deep breath as he stepped forward to take over for Kai. Here we go, he thought. One final time. “We’re gonna move our investigation to a hidden third floor we found connected to the kitchen. When I went there, I encountered one of our kidnappers who told me I wasn’t supposed to be there. Yet, she didn’t kill me, and instead helped me when I… managed to get injured for other reasons. Between this and the…” Sou swallowed a lump in his throat. “...incident in the Pink Room, Kai and I think that it’s impossible for them to directly kill us without us voting on it, like they wanted us to do in that practice round, so it should be safe to investigate.” Sou sighed. “Any questions?”

Joe raised his hand to ask a question as if he was a primary schooler, but Keiji ended up speaking before him.

“Sure. Let’s say that is the case. What does that mean for us?” he prodded in an attempt to see just how far the two of them had thought this through.

“Uh- and how come we have to quit looking around here?” Joe added, lowering his hand once he realised this meeting didn’t work that way. He was certainly not complaining about investigative efforts halting, but he was still curious.

“It is simple.” Kai began, his head tilted slightly downwards. “Should we continue on the path the kidnappers have planned for us, we will doubtlessly be forced to participate in this ‘Main Game’. Given the opportunity, shouldn’t we disrupt their plans as much as possible by going to the third floor before we are expected to go there?”

“And this time, we won’t be going back down.” Sou chimed in with a mischievous grin.

“While we cannot force you to relocate to the third floor, we strongly urge everyone to do so. Under no circumstances can we accept participation in the Main Game.” Kai finished up. An air of silence fell over the room as everyone considered what the two of them had to say, though it didn’t last long.

“Excuse me, but I must say… I think Sou and Kai are truly onto something here. This plan has my full support.” Mishima mentioned with a friendly smile.

“Y-yeah!” Nao exclaimed, standing on her sock-covered toes to make herself taller so she could stand out while she spoke. “I’ve heard Sou’s story about this before! I think we should go too!”

“Whoa- whoa whoa, hey…” Reko stumbled, trying to voice her thoughts. “Don’t you think you’re being a bit hasty? I mean, how do we know we can even trust these two?”

“We have no reason to lie.” Kai reasoned. “We want to escape from this situation as much as you all do, but to that end we will require your cooperation.”

“Well, well yeah, but…” she mumbled. “What if you’re wrong, huh? What if the moment we get up there they’re just gonna pop all our heads off one by one!?”

Kanna withdrew into herself a little bit at that thought, though Reko didn’t notice.

“Maybe.” Keiji nonchalantly admitted. “But if we go to that Main Game, we know for a fact someone’s gonna die.” Keiji leaned his head into a hand placed on his neck. “It’s risky… but I’m in.” he said with a lazy unreadable smile.

“Aw’right!” Q-taro called out, punching one hand into the outstretched palm of the other. “If Kai and Sou have thought all this through, then there ain’t no reason for me to say no!” he somewhat naively asserted.

“I’m in, meow!” Gin shouted, paw gloves raised to the ceiling. “Breaking the rules and going places we’re not supposed to sounds exciting, woof!” He looked up to the person next to them, practically jumping up and down to get their attention. “Big sis Reko! You want to come too, don’t you?” he asked, looking up at her with pleading eyes.

Gonbee huffed and averted his eyes from the scene.

“I- um, listen, I…” she stammered, trying to think of what to say. She looked away for a moment, not able to endure looking at Gin’s eyes for a second longer lest she break down and start obeying his every demand. She sighed once she finally came to an answer, and looked down at him again. “Alright, look. I’m still not totally sure about this, but if everyone else says yes, so will I. That’s the deal.” she negotiated. Gin seemed very happy with her response, despite it not being as committal as he expected.

“I’m in too.” Joe chimed in. “If there’s any chance we can avoid someone’s death, we gotta take it!” He quickly turned to the person next to him. “You think so too, don’t ‘cha Sa-” Joe swiftly trailed off and shut up upon seeing the expression on her face. 

Come to think of it, she hadn’t been saying anything this whole meeting, and Joe finally figured out why. She had a haunted expression on her face that Joe remembered seeing before they were brought here, and he followed her gaze to the source of her discomfort. Kai was staring directly at her, expectantly waiting for her input on the matter. Joe nervously mumbled something to her along the lines of “nevermind, no pressure” and shoved his hands in his shirt pockets nervously, though kept an eye on Kai.

“Erm…” Gonbee spilled out, calling attention to himself. “I concur. I vowed I would cooperate with you all where I could, and I do not intend to go back on that now.” He considered bowing to the group to show his subservience but felt like that would be too much.

“Um… um…” Kanna nervously trilled from behind Sara and Joe. “Kanna… would like to go too.”

Sara let out a quivering sigh, during which she averted her eyes from Kai’s piercing glare. “I’m coming too.”

“There!” Gin shouted, piercing the nervous and uncomfortable atmosphere of the room as he looked up at Reko. “A unaminous vote, meow! Now you have to come with, woof! You promised!”

“Yeah yeah, I know… And it’s ‘unanimous’...” she mournfully corrected.

“Okay!” Sou snapped with an unintentionally loud tone. He seemed taken aback by his own voice and tried to soften it when everyone turned their attention to him. “G-glad we’re all on the same page.” he sheepishly muttered. “We shouldn’t waste any time. I can lead you all to the passageway.”

Everyone seemed eager to follow Sou so he began walking off towards the kitchen, Kai closest behind him. A couple people half-excitedly murmured about what the third floor might be like, or if the person Sou encountered was really dangerous or not. He couldn’t help but resent the fact that some people were treating the venture to the third floor like some kind of field trip. Don’t they know people have died here?

Sou meandered between tables and chairs on his way through the cafeteria, pivoting into the kitchen and stopping in front of the large ventilation unit above the refrigerator. “Here we are.” he stated as he turned to face the group.

“Tha’sit?” Q-taro confusedly slurred, unsure if he would fit in there.

“Miss Nao and I were quite surprised to see it the first time we discovered it too.” Mishima kindly noted, attributing Q-taro’s confusion to the mere presence of a secret vent passageway.

“I’ll just… make some… room…” Sou painfully grunted as he began trying to lift the blue refrigerator off the counter so that the wider people present could properly leverage themselves into the passageway without having to balance on a small blue box. Keiji swiftly plucked the fridge out of Sou’s hands with both arms, relocating it to a counter on the other side of the kitchen.

“...Thanks.” Sou muttered, not pleased with the fact that he needed help to do something as mundane as that, but no one seemed to mind but him.

Sou warned the group that it was pitch black in the passageway and everyone had to be careful going up to make sure they didn’t trip and end up causing some kind of horrific domino effect by bumping into the person behind them. Everyone decided that they would look out for the person in front of them, and began to order a queue of who should go up first. Gin hastily volunteered for the lead position, and while Sou was quick to debate that maybe Kai or himself would be the better choice, it was easy to see the merit in putting the kids first so they wouldn’t have to watch out for an adult or a teen, even if it may be scary for Kanna going up so close to the front. Kai did helpfully point out that the room the staircase led into was perfectly safe, and the children wouldn’t be in any extra danger by being first to step into it. Regardless, Kanna was brave - by her standards - and said she was okay with going right behind Gin.

Notably, Q-taro was last in order, if only for the fact that if he fell, anyone behind him would likely be crushed before getting the chance to tumble down a giant pitch black staircase.

Once the order had been decided, Gin lifted himself up into the passageway and called out that he was ready for Kanna to come up with him. The chain continued like this until all twelve people were crammed hands-to-back within the pitch darkness. It was uncomfortable to say the least, but it was the best way of getting through this that they saw, so they slowly started their ascent.

There was a little bit of bickering and complaining on the way up, such as how Gonbee lamented the amount of effort required for one to ascend a staircase in pitch darkness with chains wrapped all around them, not to mention all the while having to push their hands up against a dusty blonde man’s shoulder blades, but no one paid him any mind.

Joe tried to lighten the mood by quietly poking fun about Gonbee to Sara, the person in front of him, but found it a little hard to focus with Kai’s paradoxically calloused yet gently focused hands so disturbingly placed onto his back. Seriously, it was some shiver inducing stuff. Kai had initially wanted to go behind Sara, but Joe quickly claimed to have previously “called shotgun”, meaning Kai had to settle for Joe instead.

“Eh?” Gin chirped from the front of the line as he suddenly broke away from Kanna’s shivering hands, walking into the dimly lit room at the top of the staircase. “What’s with this red light, meow?”

Kanna quickly followed him in afterwards, followed by Nao and then Mishima as everyone gradually flooded into the room.

“Pay no mind to the light.” Kai advised. “We have reached our destination, and that is what matters.”

Sou kept his mouth shut as he scratched at his collar under his neck, his eyes constantly drifting over to the red light. More specifically, to the object he knew still sat shrouded in the residual darkness above the light.

“S-so, what’s next?” Reko nervously asked from behind Sou. None of what they were doing right now felt good, and she couldn’t wait to be back in the light again.

“We go introduce ourselves.” Sou muttered as he walked over to the large crack between the rocks where light shone through. He’d come back for it, he told himself. Once the heat had died down. Everyone followed him over to the crack as the sound of someone tripping over the office chair in the middle of the room rang out, followed by several cries. Sou didn’t know who did that, nor did he particularly care to find out.

“I’ll go out first.” Sou decided, being the only one to have been outside of this room before after all.

“Careful now.” Keiji cautioned.

“Yeah. Got it.”

Sou turned his body sideways and effortlessly squeezed his way through the crack into the ruined corridor. It was pretty much how he remembered it: dilapidated, dangerous, and smelling of asbestos. He glanced back to everyone still inside of the room and gave a thumbs up to tell them it was safe to come out. In a flash, a small orange figure shot out of the room like a dart before excitedly searching the immediate area.

“Hey!” Sou hissed to the small boy under his breath. “Little more careful, okay?”

Gin dismissively nodded in Sou’s direction before looking at yet more exposed nails with glittering eyes.

Everyone made it through the crack in the wall with little difficulty with the exception of Gonbee, who somehow got his chains tangled up on the uneven geometry of the rocks forming the way out of the room. He managed to angrily break them free however, and soon everyone was together in the ruined corridor.

“Okay…” Sou said as he exhaled a breath he was incredibly aware that he was holding. Get it together, he told himself. This was your idea.

“There should be a fancy-looking lounge area off that way.” he told the group as he pointed down the end of the corridor they were furthest away from, where a warm light was seeping out of a doorway. “That’s where I ran into her.”

“Lounge area, huh?” Q-taro chimed in. “‘Bout time we got some luxury treatment around here.” he joked, sending everyone into silence for a short while. “...Y’see, point was that there’s nothin’ luxury about-”

“Got it.” Sou sourly interrupted. “Let’s get going.”

The twelve of them advanced to the lounge with Sou at the front of the proverbial peloton. Here goes nothing. Sou stepped into the lounge area from the ruined corridor for the second time that day, though this time he was prepared for what he would see inside.

...Or, at least, he thought he was. There was a person inside the room as expected, but they weren’t the one he was prepared to see.

A mostly androgynous looking boy wearing a horrific outfit and an exceptionally neutral expression was sitting on the edge of the table in the middle of the lobby, right leg folded over the left. Upon seeing the group hesitantly enter the room, he hopped to his feet with perceived enthusiasm and snatched up a collection of black porcelain flags that were previously laying on the table next to him. He brought one to his face as he regarded the group. The flag completely hid his mouth, and gave the illusion that he was wearing a happy, friendly smile.

 _“Jeeeeeeez!”_ he loudly whined, giving everyone their first taste of the voice that would doubtlessly get stuck in their heads given no time at all. “Took you long enough! I’ve been sitting here doing nothing for like twenty minutes, give or take!”

Sou was immensely taken aback by this boy’s appearance. Things weren’t going to plan. He aggressively scratched at his collar subconsciously as he tried to think things through.

Meanwhile, Sara and Joe exchanged a meaningful glance, before Sara shook her head at her best friend. Joe nodded in some level of agreement before shaking his head as well before they both turned to put their full attention on the boy again.

“...You sure that’s a woman, Sou?” Keiji asked, looking down on the scruffy man in front of him.

“W-what?” Sou exclaimed before realising what Keiji meant. “I mean, no! This isn’t the person I was talking about, I-I’ve never met them in my life...”

“Of course you’ve never met me!” The boy flipped to a different flag in one practiced hand motion. This one covered his entire face, and showed an angry, scornful expression. “You weren’t _supposed to_ yet.”

The underlying tone of viciousness in “supposed to” made Sou unbelievably anxious. Maybe he was wrong, and this orange haired person was about to finish them all off right where they stood.

“Welp, never mind!” the boy chirped, bringing Sou back to reality with a start. He flicked his wrist to switch to the previous happy flag. “Nothing to it, I guess. But, y’know, we had this whole thing planned out, and now we’ve had to throw it _all_ in the trash. So thanks a lot, guys!”  
Keiji gave a stiff exhale through his nose as if finding the idea that he was supposed to feel bad for ruining this guy’s plans funny.

“Anyway, let’s get on with it. Since you bastards are already impatient enough…” the strange boy said as he switched to a flag that only covered his eyes and created the illusion of a suspicious look.

It was straight back to the happy flag though as he started to introduce himself. “My name’s Rio Ranger! And I’m the ‘dress-up doll’!” he explained without elaborating what that meant.

As Ranger called himself the dress-up doll, everyone started properly paying attention to his outfit, though quickly wished they didn’t. The colours were completely mismatched, and there seemed to be no common link between the random clashing articles of clothing thrown onto his body.

As everyone was taking in and perhaps planning to comment on the ridiculous outfit, someone suddenly let out a loud gasp. Everyone’s startled eyes turned to Kanna, who was staring wide eyed with a stiff unwavering hand pointed directly at Ranger’s skirt.

“Ah… haha…” Ranger began to stiffly laugh, sounding more like a realistic text to speech program being told to laugh than an actual person. “You’re sharp, you know that? I hadn’t even gotten to that part yet!” He sadistically twirled around to let his stolen skirt flutter in the wind before stopping to eagerly observe her reaction.

To his chagrin, she wasn’t awash with tears and collapsed on the floor like he was hoping. Instead, she mostly seemed confused and frustrated.

“But… but…” she warbled.

“But that’s my _beloved_ sister’s skirt!” Ranger finished, intentionally whining more than usual to make fun of Kanna. “That’s how that sentence was gonna end, right? Right?”

“Whoa, wait, the fuck did you just say!?” Reko crudely shouted, failing to mind her language around the children.

“Let’s slow down here.” Keiji calmly mediated. “How come you’re wearing that skirt?” he prodded with a very serious, yet not angry tone.

“Fine, if you’ve _gotta_ know…” Ranger began. “It’s sort of my thing! I give lonely clothes left behind by pathetic humans a new home! Recycling is important, you know!” he said with the happy flag proudly held over his mouth.

“That’s your **thing!?** ” Joe angrily exclaimed. “But that’s-that’s just, that’s so messed up!”

“Oh, come off it!” Ranger protested. “We’ve all got a thing, us dolls! Miley laughs all the time, I take clothes off dead bodies, and Safalin is a pathetic crybaby!”

“W-wait, ‘Safalin’?” Sou quickly jumped in, prompting Ranger to quickly shift to the eye flag as he turned to Sou. 

“What, did she never tell you her name? How inconsiderate of her!” he said, before realising something. “Oh, guess that means I just spoiled her introduction, huh? That’s a shame, ‘cause she’s been waiting ages for this. _Oops!_ ” he finished his sentence with one of his strange unnatural laughs before turning to one of the doorways towards the back of the room. “Safalin! You can come out now!” he trilled.

A few seconds passed before a miserable looking woman wearing an elaborate green outfit walked out of the doorway he had called towards. There was no doubt about it. That was absolutely the woman Sou had met earlier.

Though she was slouching a bit as she made her way over to the group, she stood up as straight as she could to introduce herself.

“M-my name is Tia Safalin…” she started.

“We know.” Ranger interrupted.

“...and I am the ‘crying doll’. I-”

“Uh-huh. That’s enough of that.” he said with a dismissive wave of his gloved hand.

“Now!” he said as he faced the participants. “Don’t think that cause you’ve shown up here that we’re just gonna watch you twiddle your thumbs all day. We’ve got a special assignment for you bastards! We’re gonna have you do the ‘Sub-Game’!”

Ranger and Safalin went on to explain the rules of the Sub-Game: get clear chips from attractions, don’t get enough and you die. They also gave everyone a short tour of the third floor, showing them the medical office, relaxation room, monitor room, and notably the prize exchange. Everyone seemed a little bit unnerved by the presence of the man clad in brown here, but Kai most of all was taken aback. He tried his best to hide the way he subconsciously bit his lower lip until it threatened to bleed, and thankfully most people failed to notice. Ranger told everyone not to mind the man and that he was just here to act as a shopkeeper of sorts.

It was here that he handed out small purses to everyone present, all containing approximately one hundred golden coins called “Me-Tokens” with the owner’s face engraved on both sides of them. He explained that you could only buy things from here with Me-Tokens that don’t bear your likeness, so they’ll have to trade with people if they want to go shopping.

“Why wouldn’t we just swap all of our tokens with someone then? Seems pretty useless to hold onto our own.” Joe mentioned, and Ranger thrashed a hand at him dismissively.

“Slow your roll! Let me actually explain what you can buy with tokens first. God, you make me wait for ages and now you can’t even wait for five seconds for me to finish speaking? You’re so ungrateful, you know that? I don’t even have to give you this tour but out of the goodness of my heart I-” Ranger rambled before Joe interrupted in anguish.

“A-alright, alright, I’m sorry!”

 _”You’re forgiven.”_ he trilled annoyingly before explaining everything you can buy with Me-Tokens. First he covered the clear chip, as it explains itself. Then, the easy ticket - of which there were a few - and the small uniquely coloured USB sticks contained in glass with names labelled on the counter beneath, along with the twenty token price tag for each. Most of the names belonged to people that no one here had ever heard of, but Kanna couldn’t bring herself to take her eyes off the green stick labelled “Kugie Kizuchi”. Ranger painfully explained that contained in each of those USB sticks was a special video file they could play on one of the twenty monitors in the monitor room that showed off the grisly demise of one of the people whose name was on the label. People seemed appalled by the idea and angrily questioned Ranger, asking why anyone would want to buy that.

He held up his non-flag wielding hand in protest and said that it might be a good idea to get to know their would-be friends, since they’ll never have the chance to meet them again, after all.

Kanna held a hand to her chest, clutching the front of her shirt in a tensed fist as her unblinking gaze alone threatened to bore holes in the glass container around that USB stick.  
Not even Ranger’s eternally frustrating voice could break her from her focus as he began to explain that with a whopping fifty of a single person’s tokens, you can horrifically violate their privacy and buy their personal information, in his own words.

This was met by some pretty shocked reactions, including Joe admitting that he now saw why giving someone all your tokens might not be a great idea. Ranger said none of them had to worry about it so long as they didn’t do anything stupid as taking Me-Tokens by force was an illegitimate way of obtaining them, saying that Sou, Gin and Kanna had nothing to worry about in that regard.

To conclude his tour, Ranger took everyone to the giant looming staircase with the vending machine at the top. He explained that if someone managed to get an unbelievable two hundred of other people’s Me-Tokens, they’d be able to buy an escape ticket right out of the facility. Of course, he added, it was very unlikely anyone would ever get two hundred, so there was probably no reason to worry.

“Alright!” Ranger said with his happy smiling flag up. “So concludes my tour! The attractions all open starting now, so go play while you have the time, you bastards!” He enthusiastically waved everyone off alongside Safalin who sheepishly and slowly waved her hand at the dispersing group.

Everyone pretty much went in different directions, looking around the various areas and scoping out the attractions available to them. Or at least, most people did that. Sou was the exception, in that he went straight to his assigned bedroom connected to the main lobby and immediately laid face up on the bed.

This was the first moment he’d gotten to himself in a long time, and he’s been waiting to investigate something. He sat up and raised up his right arm so that his hand was in front of his face, and nervously stared at the sleeve of his jacket. The fabric was torn, like something had slashed across his sleeve. He pinched the top of the sleeve and pulled it down, gritting his teeth and opening his eyes wide as he looked at what was being hidden beneath it.

There was a long, thin hole in his wrist. It wasn’t gory or bleeding or anything, it was like a thin black void in the skin. It was more obvious when he bent his hand backwards, but thankfully his sleeve usually helps cover it. That didn’t stop Kai from noticing during their initial discussion on the third floor though thanks to the tear, and neither of them knew what it could be.

Sou certainly didn’t have any memory of when this could’ve happened, or why it was here. He was sure his wrist was whole when he first came to this place, but that’s all he knew.

He nervously raised up his left hand as well, extending his pointer finger and bringing it closer to the hole in his wrist. He backed out right before he pierced the void, hastily stuffing his wrist back into his sleeve and shuddering. Not a good idea.

He readjusted his beanie in a disgruntled manner as he laid back down to leave himself in his thoughts for a while, staring up at the ceiling and trying to take his mind off the mystery surrounding his wrist. He’d have to get up to get clear chips soon enough, but not right now.

Sara stared into one of the twenty monitors set up in the monitor room, seeing her reflection staring back at her in the dark screen. She frowned and brought up a hand to bat at her hair until it was arranged the way she wanted it to be. To be honest, she thought she kind of looked like a wreck, but who wouldn’t in this situation?

Well, she guessed Reko still looked pretty good but she was wearing a lot of makeup, unlike Sara.

...Though, there was also Nao. Sara was pretty sure that Nao wasn’t wearing any- gah, why was she thinking about this!?

Appearances didn’t matter right now, though it wasn’t as if they ever did too much anyway. Keiji certainly seemed fine with his generic look, as he wasn’t studying his reflection in the monitor he was staring into. Instead, he was looking at Sara’s and watching her face subtly change whenever her train of thought took a sudden diversion.

As he was staring at the other reflective monitor, he noticed a figure walk through the door behind Sara, and slowly whirled around to look at the new arrival. “Heya, Kai.” he greeted with a friendly looking smile.

He’d noticed the way Sara looked at Kai - who wouldn’t - so his ‘friendly greeting’ served more as a warning to her if anything.

It worked well, as though Sara tensed up a little upon hearing Kai’s name, she was prepared when she turned to face him.

Kai completely ignored Keiji’s greeting, choosing to exclusively address Sara instead.  
“Excuse me, Miss Sara.” he began, making her whole body freeze in anticipation of what he was about to say.

“I believe I have selected a suitable attraction for the two of us to complete. Please accompany me to the ‘Hide and Seek’ attraction at your earliest convenience.” he stiffly asked, gesturing with an empty hand to the door with the plaque saying “Hide and Seek” connected to the monitor room. He no longer carried his cooking utensils with him after Safalin politely notified him that bringing tools into attractions was not allowed. As such, he left them safely in his room.

Sara stammered a little bit as she thought of how to respond, but Keiji stepped towards Kai before she had to answer.

“Aw, sorry Kai. You’re just a bit too late.”

“Excuse me?”

“Said you’re a bit too late. See, I already ‘called shotgun’ earlier. Sara and I are going to that one.” Keiji said while pointing to the “Stay on Target” door.

“...Is this true, Miss Sara?” Kai said as he turned back to her. She quickly nodded with fake enthusiasm.

“Y-yes! M-maybe another time! Bye!” she said while holding the most forced smile imaginable as she grabbed Keiji’s arm and began quickly dragging him over to the door he had claimed to have asked Sara about earlier.

The two of them disappeared behind the door, off to what was merely the first life-threatening attraction Sara would be partaking in. Kai furrowed his brow and moved back to the lobby, where he could collect his thoughts.

He sat down on one of the wooden chairs, placing his elbows on the table so that he could rest his chin in his hands as he began to lose himself in thought, and began to re-evaluate his view on Keiji.

He supposed this meant he would have to go with his original plan of just giving all of his own clear chips to Sara so that she could do as little attractions as possible, but he was worried this would come off a tad strange to everyone.

Not too long after he began his thought process, he heard heavy footsteps and the rustling of clothing coming from behind him. He broke from his meditative stance, placing one hand neatly on the table as he arched his back to look behind him at the gargantuan baseball player who had walked up behind him.

“Hey, Kai. You good?” Q-taro said in his confusing accent, hands in his pockets as he rubbed his thumb nervously across the zipper of his purse.

“...Yes.” Kai replied after much deliberation. “I suppose I am ‘good’. Is there a reason you are speaking to me?”

“Well, you know, we all gotta look out for each other here, right? Just, uh, just checkin’ in on a good friend.” Q-taro tried to explain.

“Do you have an ulterior motive?”

“H-huh? Wha- uhh, who told you that? Ha! Hahaha…” the big man stumbled. Kai stared blankly into the baseball player’s eyes, and he began to crack.

“L-look, it ain’t nothin’ bad, I just wanna do an attraction with you, is all! Everyone else is already doin’ one, and I don’t wanna ask Gonbee!” He put his hands together as he begged Kai to help him out.

Kai’s eyebrows raised slightly at the uttering of the name Gonbee. He supposed that must be the chain-bound man’s name, then.

“Very well. Did you have one already in mind, perhaps?” Kai asked as he rose from his chair.

“Well, y’see, I thought maybe I could help you out with one you’d have trouble completin’ otherwise.” Q-taro began. “So then I saw that arm wrasslin’ one and I-”

“Actually, I believe I would be quite good at arm wrestling. I do not require assistance in that regard.”

“Huh? Really?” Q-taro asked as he turned his gaze to Kai’s arms. They looked pretty spindly to him, but if Kai was so sure… “...Well, dang. That was all I had.”

“In that case, how about I help _you_ with one you may have trouble passing otherwise?”

“Uh? Well, if ya’ think ya’ can…”

“Excellent.” Kai said as he turned towards the monitor room doorway. “Follow me, then.”

“...Hide and Seek?” Q-taro read the plaque on the door with an unsure tone.

“Yes. Forgive my saying so, but you are... quite large. The larger one is, the harder it tends to be to hide. I am not large.”

“Hey, no forgiveness needed. I know I’m big.” he said with a self-confident grin.

“Right. I believe myself to be stealthy enough to make up for your lack of subtlety. Shall we proceed?” he asked, having to crane his neck quite a bit to maintain eye contact with Q-taro.

“Uh… we shall!” the bigger man awkwardly said while pumping a fist in the air.

“Excellent.” Kai said as he gripped the doorknob and pushed the door open, revealing a long corridor with no end in sight. Kai set down it without hesitation, and Q-taro came in close behind him. The two walked down the corridor mostly in silence at first, the only noise coming from their combined footsteps and the rustling of Kai’s apron against his legs. Though, Q-taro happened to break the silence.

“...Y’know, Kai, this could be pretty dangerous.” he pointed out.

“Naturally, I have considered that. But there is no path any of us can take where danger is not a reality, unfortunate though it may be.”

“Right, right, but I was just thinking... You’re just, what was it, some kinda homemaker right?”

“Correct.”

“So I was thinkin’, maybe you’d have some trouble.”

“Is that the true reason you asked me?” Kai asked, looking slightly over his shoulder at Q-taro as he spoke before looking forward again.

“W-well, kinda. I didn’t wanna say it back there ‘cause I wasn’t sure how you’d take it.”

“And so, just in case I was insulted, you waited to tell me until I was past the point of no return.”

Q-taro seemed taken aback by that, and started to stammer again. “Y-y’know, when you put it like that, it seems kinda wrong…”

“Regardless, there is no need for concern. You would do well to worry about yourself and the children first and foremost.”

“...Got it.”

The two of them had reached the end of the corridor, where they found themselves in a pitch black room past a door that automatically locked behind them. Three clicking sounds came from the door before a familiar voice began to echo throughout the room, causing Q-taro to get into a defensive stance at the sudden noise.

“Heya, bastards!” Ranger’s voice said.

“Ranger!” Q-taro snarled, looking blindly around the dark room. “Where’re you hidin’, coward!?”

“By the way, this is a pre-recorded message. So save your insults for when you see me in person, okay?”

“Oh.”

“Welcome to Hide and Seek! Your task today is to hold down these three switches long enough to disengage the three locks on the door you came from behind you. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck here forever!”

Three dim spotlights turned on with a click, shining white light onto three switches that were previously hidden in the room. There was one on the floor, and one on the left and right walls each.

“Looks easy enough!” Q-taro confidently said to his partner.

“But oh no! Look out, you two!” Ranger chimed as a brighter spotlight shined in the center of the room, revealing a burly looking man wielding a sickle.

“It’s a serial killer, and he’s looking for more additions to his head collection or whatever! Don’t worry though, he’s not gonna come after you… yet!”

The light from the four spotlights illuminated the room quite well. There was a large rock between the duo and the killer that seemed like it would make a good hiding place, for starters.

“Remember, boys and or girls! Hold those switches until you hear one of the locks disengage, and most of all, don’t get caught!”

Kai was poised and ready to leap into action as soon as was necessary, and Q-taro awkwardly tried to get into a similar pose.

“On the count to three! One! Two! Three! Ready or not, here he comes!” Ranger finished as the device playing his voice shut off and the serial killer seemed to almost spring to life.  
Kai quickly launched his lithe body towards his planned hiding place, pinning himself to the large rock in front of him. Q-taro was right behind him, and the rock managed to just barely conceal both of their bodies at the same time. Thanks to Q-taro’s size though, it was quite a tight squeeze.

Kai peered around the right side of the rock, noticing that the serial killer was turned the complete opposite way. Good. “Stay here.” he whispered into Q-taro’s ear before silently darting towards the lever built into the right wall.

Despite the incredible speed he was sprinting at, his footsteps seemed to make no noise whatsoever, able to make it to the lever and hold it down with one hand, ready to abandon it if the serial killer began to look towards him.

He wasn’t sure how long it would take to disengage the lock and began to worry that he wouldn’t be able to do this in one go, but right as he was about to leave his post, a somewhat loud clicking noise came from the door.

The serial killer perked up and began to look behind him, but by the time he had turned around, Kai was already gone.

“Nice goin’.” Q-taro whispered into Kai’s ear. “Mind if I take the next one?” he asked while looking at the lever closest to the rock, built into the floor.

This was probably a bad idea, Kai recognized, but you only live once or whatever people more reckless than him tend to say.

“Fine. But be careful.”

Q-taro waited for the killer to look away before lunging towards the lever attached to the ground. Almost comically, a medium sized rock caught onto his foot and he went sprawling to the ground while loudly exclaiming, half out of cover. The serial killer snapped his head around to look at the noise as Kai quickly grabbed Q-taro and pulled him back into cover as if he weighed nothing and covered the bigger man’s mouth with his left arm as the right was still partially wrapped around him, his hand on the bigger man’s chest.

The serial killer approached the rock as Kai felt both of their heart rates increase. For around fifteen seconds that felt like an hour, the killer investigated the rock but somehow failed to think to look behind it, and resumed staring at the featureless end of the room instead. Kai breathed a very quiet sigh of relief as he unhanded a disgruntled Q-taro, and decided that he would be getting this lever now instead.

As it was much closer to the rock than the lever he had pulled prior, it was an effortless endeavour and he soon heard the second lock disengage and hid behind the rock before the killer could investigate the noise.

There was only one left now, the lever against the left wall. This one was the furthest away from the rock, so it would be a challenge to activate for sure. However, Kai was certain that if he remained calm, he would be able to finish the attraction once and for- why in the world was Q-taro running towards the lever?

Kai exited cover in pursuit of the bigger man in a state of mild panic, but the two of them actually managed to get to the lever without being detected.  
“Got it.” Q-taro cockily and very quietly hissed before throwing down the lever a bit too fast. There was a loud clunk sound as he slammed the lever down, and the killer looked straight towards Q-taro - and this time, there was nowhere to run.

Q-taro stopped holding the lever in a panic and stood in a panicked wide stance, shielding Kai behind him completely in the process.

The killer ran towards the big man with his sickle held high and Q-taro screwed his eyes shut as it began to come down on him.

In a flash, Kai flew out from behind Q-taro, slamming the killer in the stomach with a brutal elbow smash. He gripped his aggressor’s hand in an attempt to wrench the weapon from his hand, but pulled just a little bit too hard and ended up tearing the entire arm off, to Q-taro’s absolute bewilderment.

‘No matter.’ Kai thought as he adjusted his grip before stabbing the killer through the face with his own weapon and kicking him to the ground.

The two of them looked down at the fallen man. There was no blood, and sparks kept shooting out of his empty arm socket.

“Ah.” Kai exclaimed. “He was not real.”

He proceeded to casually hold down the lever before Q-taro could think about what just happened, and soon the final lock was disengaged.

The lights fully turned on in the room as the door slowly opened and two clear chips descended from the ceiling attached to strings.

“Congratulations!” Ranger’s voice rang out again. “Claim your reward and get outta here so Safalin can clean up the place!”

Kai plucked the clear chips from the strings attached to the ceiling, placing one into Q-taro’s palm.

“You did well in hiding me from the enemy as we were pulling the final lever.”

“H-huh?”

“Is that not what you were doing? You concealed me from our foe so that I was able to deliver an effective surprise attack.”

“Oh! Yeah! That’s uh, what I had planned all along!”

“Of course. Shall we leave?”

“We shall!”

Soon before Kai and Q-taro came back into the monitor room, Keiji and Sara emerged from the “Stay on Target” door. Sara had two clear chips in hand as the attraction they had just completed had a prize pool of three chips, leaving Keiji with only one. However, Sara had given him thirty of her Me-Tokens at his request so that he could buy a second one from the prize exchange.

The two of them split ways as Sara went to the lobby while Keiji went to the prize exchange. Sara sat down in one of the chairs, slightly exhausted. Stay on Target didn’t require any physical exertion but her brain kind of hurt, so she wanted to sit down for a bit.

“Hey! Sara!” a very familiar voice said. She looked up to see Joe excitedly walking towards her and taking the seat across from her. “I’ve been looking for you. I wanna give you something!” he said with a smile.

She blinked twice as she processed the situation. “Oh! What is it?”

“It’s a surprise! Close your eyes and hold out your hands!”

“Okay?”

Sara did what he said, closing her eyes and holding out her hands put together. She kind of wanted to peek, but didn’t want to spoil Joe’s fun.

She heard an unzipping noise that unnerved her somewhat and she decided to prod. “Joe? What are you doing?”

“Aaaaaand _presto!_ ” Joe said as Sara felt a cascade of cold objects in her hands. She opened her eyes in surprise, seeing Joe empty the entire contents of his Ranger bestowed purse into her hands.

“J-Joe!?”

“It’s all one-hundred of my tokens! Not like I was gonna use any of them, right?”

“But, with only fifty of these, I can…” Sara started, but Joe shook his head in dismissal.

“I trust ya’, Sara! I know you wouldn’t do something like that. And, well, even if you did, there’s already nothing you don’t know about me! So there’s no problem!”

Sara couldn’t help but smile a bit at Joe’s genuine trust in her. “Well, if you’re so sure, thank you, Joe. That means a lot to me.”

“No problem! Now you can give me all of yours!” Joe said with a wide smile.

“W-wait, what?”

Joe’s smile turned to a confused expression. “What? Same thing I said about you applies to me too. I’ll give ‘em a good home, promise!”

“It’s not that, it’s just… I already gave some of mine to Keiji.”

“You- you what!?” Joe seemed legitimately taken aback and maybe slightly betrayed by this.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, the attraction we were doing had an uneven amount of chips, so I had to give him thirty of my tokens…” she quickly explained to him.

“But he’s… Keiji!”

“What’s wrong with Keiji?”

“I don’t know, he’s just, you know…” He groaned with an unsure expression. “He’s weird! He’s always shifty looking and staring at you, and-”

“Stare-staring at me? What are you talking about? Keiji doesn’t stare at me!”

“He so does! He stares at everyone! It creeps me out, makes it feel like he’s taking note of my every action or something.”

“Well anyway, does it even matter? He can’t do anything special with only thirty tokens, Joe.”

“I know, I know…” Joe muttered, hanging his head low as he kept internally grumbling.

“Here.” Sara started as she placed Joe’s tokens on the table and started to divide them into two groups. “You take thirty of these back, and we can have an even trade of seventy each.”

“But what am I gonna do with my own tokens, Sara?”

“You could use them as a bargaining chip, maybe?”

“...Oh…” Joe looked up as he put a hand to his chin in an exaggerated thinking pose. “I never thought about using them like that!”

Sara lightly laughed before the two of them properly conducted the trade, swapping seventy of their tokens with each other and containing them safely within their purses.

“Oh! I just remembered, I wanted to ask you something!” Joe suddenly exclaimed, remembering the other reason he approached Sara.

“What is it?”

“Wanna go try out that card battle attraction?”

Some time later, a bedroom door creaked open as a dilapidated job hopper stepped out of it, ready to begin what felt like a brand new day. He had something important to do before he could go scouting out attractions though, and snuck away towards the ruined corridor. There wasn’t anyone here right now thankfully, or they might ask what he was doing.

By now he knew exactly where that special rock that led to the room with the hidden staircase was, and he slipped behind it into the room covered in rubble. He made his way to the red LED lights towards the back of the room, bumped his foot on the fallen office chair as he did and ran his hands across the top of the computer.

To his surprise, he felt a completely smooth surface. He ran his hands over it a few times more, before he finally realised what must’ve happened. He subconsciously swore under his breath as he recognized that he’d been too slow. By now the laptop must be locked tightly away in Kai’s bedroom, and there’s no way he’d be able to get in there.

He groaned, frustrated with himself for lazing around while Kai was already on the move. He was really hoping to find out why Kai was going through such lengths to make sure that laptop stayed in his hands, but now there was no way to wrench it from him.

Sou squeezed back into the ruined corridor, disheartened as ever. He decided that he could at the very least take his mind off things with an attraction, so he walked up to one of the doors in the corridor.

“Charge Card Battle?” he mumbled to himself quietly. “Sure, why not.” He’d played a few trading card games before in his time, so maybe this was the one for him. He gripped the doorknob, twisted and pushed, but it didn’t budge. He furrowed his brow and gave it a few more good pushes, and after the second time he shoulder bashed it, decided it was a lost cause.

“Um… Mister Sou?” a tiny voice said, alerting Sou to the fact that someone had been watching him do that. He looked towards and slightly down at the source of the voice, seeing Kanna standing before him.

“That attraction is occupied…” she uncomfortably warbled.

“Huh? By who?”

“Um… Sara and Joe. Kanna saw them go in just a bit ago.”

“O-oh, alright.” Sou muttered, thinking about how stupid he must’ve looked body slamming an intentionally locked door.

“Also, also… You have to be in a pair to do attractions.”

“...Now that you mention it, that sounds a bit familiar.” He didn’t pay much attention during Ranger’s explanation, to be entirely honest. Guess he just had other things to think about during it.

The two of them stood in silence for a moment, Kanna pushing her fingers up against each other as she tried to work up the courage to speak.

“Well, I’m gonna-” Sou began as he tried to walk away.

“W-wait!” Kanna cried out, stopping the man in his tracks. “Um! Would you like to… do an attraction with Kanna?”

“What? Why me?” Sou asked. He wasn’t against the idea, but Kanna usually never even talked to anyone she wasn’t perfectly comfortable around.

“Well, Kanna wanted to ask Sara, but that was when she saw her go into the door with Joe…”

“...Oh.”

“So then Kanna looked for Nao, but, but she wasn’t anywhere, so Kanna guessed she was doing an attraction with Mister Mishima.”

“...Oh…”

“So then Kanna heard you hitting the door and wanted to ask you instead.”

“Well, I appreciate it…?” Sou said in a confused tone. “I don’t know any of these attractions, though. You’ll have to remind me.”

“That’s-that’s okay. Kanna can show you them all.”

The two of them went around led by Kanna, who showed all of the doors that didn’t have a “closed for repairs” sign hung on them to Sou. She ended their little tour in the relaxation room, where she showed him the Fly Swatter, Spirit Shutter and Quick Draw attraction doors.

Kanna said that she didn’t want to do Fly Swatter, so that was ruled out. Both of them seemed pretty into the idea of the Quick Draw door, though.

“Kanna’s… pretty good at drawing.”

“I’m not sure that’s what this attraction is about. ‘Quick Draw’ sounds like it’s referring to reflexes, not art.” Sou corrected.

“Oh, whoops…”

“Works out though, I think. I happen to have pretty good reflexes.” he said with a smirk.

“Really?”

“Yep. I play a _lot_ of video games, you know.” he said with a misplaced sense of pride. “Good reflexes pay off big time in competitive and action games.”

“Um… that’s very impressive, Mister Sou.”

He suddenly felt pretty embarrassed thanks to her flat response, and decided that it would probably just be best to get on with it since they both agreed on the door.

He gripped the doorknob and twisted it, pushing it open with only a mite of effort. “Open says me…” he quietly said under his breath as the two of them started down the long corridor beyond the door.

The two didn’t say much to each other on their stroll to mortal peril, and ended up at the attraction room soon enough. The door locked shut behind them, and there were two spotlights in the otherwise pitch black room illuminating a table in the middle of the room and a computer monitor facing away from the table resting on top of a desk with nothing else on it.

Sou stepped over to the table, noticing three objects strewn atop it. He gritted his teeth nervously as he saw what they were: a metal pipe, a small sword, and worst of all, a small handgun.

Maybe this was a mistake. Did they want him to a fire a _gun?_

Ranger’s voice permeated the room, catching the attention of the duo.

“Heya bastards! It’s me, pre-recorded Rio Ranger here to tell you all about this attraction!”

“In Quick Draw, both of you bastards will have a very important role to play. One of you will be the Advisor, and the other will be the Defender.  
Throughout the attraction, dangerous monsters will emerge from the darkness! The Defender has to act fast to defeat their opponent before their opponent defeats them. Got it? Great!”

“M-monsters…?” Kanna repeated.

“Monsters aren’t real, Kanna. They’re probably just gonna be cardboard cutouts or something.” Sou reasoned.

“But there’s a problem!” Pre-Recorded Rio Ranger continued. “The Defender can’t just pick any old weapon they want. They have to use the right weapon to repel their enemy, the one that they won’t be expecting!”

“How do you know what weapon to hit the monster with? That’s where the Advisor comes in! That monitor will display what weapon the Defender needs to use, and it’s the Advisor’s job to tell the Defender what to do before it’s too late. That means both of you bastards have to cooperate and use your reflexes together to save your skin!”

“Oh, let’s say things don’t go as planned. Maybe the Advisor slips up, or the Defender is too late. In this scenario, the Defender will suffer one strike. Get three strikes and you have to swap roles with the Advisor. If the Advisor also gets three strikes, you’re both _out._ You got that? Awesome!”

“But that’s enough out of me! I’ll let you two think about who should be the Advisor and who should be the Defender for a minute.”

“I… I guess I’m the Defender.” Sou mournfully recognized.

Kanna nodded. “Kanna’s fine with being the Advisor.”

“You two done yet? Advisor, take your spot at the desk and say you’re ready. Our amazing voice recognition technology will be able to tell who you are!”

Kanna walked over to the desk, and looked at the monitor. There were three dim images of a pipe, sword and gun. She assumed that one of them would light up when she had to tell Sou what to do.

“R-ready!” Kanna said towards the ceiling.

“Sounds like Kanna Kizuchi is the Advisor! Good choice!” Ranger uncharacteristically praised.

“Thank you…?” Kanna muttered.

“It probably just says ‘good choice’ about everyone. No way they’d individually comment on each person.”

“Defender, take your place at the table and say you’re ready.”

Sou was already there, so he spoke up quickly. “Ready.”

“Sounds like… wait, seriously? You picked _him?_ ”

Sou sighed.

“Alright, roles are assigned. Your first opponent is coming forward as I speak, so be ready to draw, you two!”

Ranger’s voice shut off as a strange hammer wielding wooden mannequin stepped out of the darkness and slapped its empty hand with the hammer menacingly, producing a satisfying whack.

“That’s not a cardboard cutout… but it’s not far off.” Sou muttered as he stanced up, ready for any of the options.

The mannequin began slowly reeling up a hit as something flashed on Kanna’s screen.

“Oh! Um, pipe!”

Sou snatched the pipe from the table with his dominant hand and slammed it against the side of the mannequin’s head, knocking it clean off.

Sou twirled around the pipe in his hand cockily before accidentally dropping it. As he was picking it back up, his second opponent emerged from the darkness, a sword wielding samurai.

“Look out, Mister Sou! Sword!”

Sou grabbed the sword with his weaker hand as he was standing up, pipe still in his other. He crossed swords with the samurai as he stood up, and even though he would absolutely lose a duel of strength in this situation, the samurai didn’t seem to be pushing against him. Guess just by using the sword at all, he was given a free pass.

“Um, um…” Kanna nervously stammered as she gripped the sides of the monitor and stared at it intently waiting for the next result.

“ _There!_ Pipe!”

That’s convenient, Sou thought as he slammed the pipe he was still holding into the samurai’s forehead, sending it reeling backwards into the darkness.

Sou let out a ragged breath. That was two. He placed the weapons back onto the table and glanced at the gun as he did. It was only a matter of time before he had to use it, and he wasn’t looking forward to that moment whatsoever.

He stood up straight and steeled himself for his next foe to appear. An orange light began to shine in the darkness as a man made mostly of fire arrived in front of Sou, wielding a blade of blue fire. To say Sou was intimidated was an understatement, and he swallowed nervously at the sight of his new enemy.

“Gun!”

“W-what?” Sou stammered moments before the flame man slashed at him due to his foolish blunder. The flame sword appeared to cleave straight through him, but he actually didn’t feel it at all.

“Strike one for the Defender!” Ranger’s voice cried out. “Try harder!”

“Are-are you okay, Mister Sou!?” Kanna cried in a panic, but Sou assured her that he felt fine and told her to focus on the attraction. She nodded with determination, focusing on the monitor once again.

Sou began to think about the situation he was in. The way he saw it, there was a very good chance that the next weapon would once again be the gun. Considering he didn’t get the hardest weapon to use until the final round, there was reason to assume the order of weapons wasn’t randomized. If this was the case, would it change upon getting a strike?

That would mean they’d have to make three iterations for each round, which means three different ways each enemy has to do an attack each round so that they could be properly countered by whatever weapon was selected.

It was safer to assume it was going to tell Sou to use the gun again, and this time he was ready for it. He took a deep breath, focused his mind, and held his hand over the gun.

“Gun again!” Kanna cried out.

“Got it!” Sou shouted, swiping the gun off the table and aiming it at the flame man’s chest, which appeared to be one of the only tangible parts of its body. Despite the fact that he had just won the upper hand, his finger appeared to almost be frozen when he tried to will himself to pull the trigger. The flame man brought up a tangible gauntlet and used it to deliver a brutal smack to Sou’s hand, sending the gun flying off towards the Advisor’s desk.

Sou let out a loud and shrill scream as the flame man brought his sword down on him once more as Sou withdrew into his body in an attempt to shield himself. It hadn’t hurt him last time, but every instinct he had was telling him to guard against something like that.

He was violently brought out of his cowering when he heard a highly compressed laser beam sound effect echo through the room multiple times. He looked up in confusion to see Kanna with the gun held high in both hands, repeatedly shooting at the flame man as the sound effect played over itself constantly. She wasn’t firing bullets though, and as the flame man fell dead to the floor, Sou realised what was going on.

“A-a toy?” he stammered. Come to think of it, that made sense. Why would they give them access to a real firearm? Now he felt pretty stupid for being so petrified at the sight of a toy gun, but in his defence, it looked really realistic.

“Congratulations, Defender! You defended your Advisor almost perfectly!” Ranger’s voice incorrectly claimed. “Claim your reward!”

Kanna placed the toy gun back down on the table as the lights came on and two clear chips descended from the ceiling. “That-that wasn’t so bad!”

“Y-yeah…” Sou sheepishly muttered. “I guess it wasn’t.”

Kanna plucked the clear chips off the strings and walked towards Sou, looking up at him pleadingly.  
“Mister Sou?”

“Uh? What’s up?”

Kanna put both of the clear chips in his hand. “If… If Kanna gives you both of these, will you give her twenty of your tokens?”

“What? Are you sure about that, Kanna?”

“Y-yes. It’s… important.”

Sou frowned. He would probably feel bad taking something like that from a child, but it’s not like she’s getting nothing in return, and she was the one who asked.

Unable to resist the allure of two whole chips, Sou hesitantly put them into his pocket and took out his purse, picking out twenty tokens and handing them over to her.

“Thank you, Mister Sou.” she said as she deposited his tokens into her own purse.

“...Yeah. No problem.”

The two of them left the attraction room, walking back down the corridor with strange feelings about the trade that just took place.

About halfway down the corridor, Kanna surprised Sou when she started giggling out of nowhere.

“What’s so funny?” Sou asked.

“You scream like a little girl, Mister Sou.”

“W-what?”

“When that last guy threw your gun away! You screamed really loud!” Kanna laughed away, smiling wide as she did. Seeing Kanna happy was certainly a rarity to say the least. This was the first time he’d ever even seen her smile, come to think of it.

Sou decided he could swallow his pride, just this once.

“...Haha. I guess I did, huh?”

By the time the two of them got to the lobby, they were parting ways with each other. Sou headed back to his bedroom as Kanna waved him off, and her smile slowly disappeared after he left her sight.

She looked down and closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath followed by a steady exhale. It was finally time. She held her purse close to her chest as she headed towards the monitor room, and then to the prize exchange.

She was glad no one else was here, as she didn’t want anyone to know what she was about to do.

“...Um…” she exclaimed as she walked up to the mustached man running the prize exchange. He looked down at her expectantly and she started nervously placing Sou’s tokens onto the counter one by one. Once all twenty were down, she took another deep breath and placed her order.

“Kanna wants…” she began, pointing towards the USB sticks on display. “...huh?”

Something caught her eye. One of the glass display cases was empty. She remembered that there was a blue USB stick where there was now nothing, and curiously read the name labelled under the case.

“...Megumi Sasahara?” she mumbled to no one but herself. The name didn’t ring any bells, so she cautiously decided to ignore it for now.

“...N-nevermind. Kanna would like that one… please.” She pointed a shaking finger to the case with the green USB labelled “Kugie Kizuchi”.

“Certainly.” the mustached man said, taking Sou’s tokens and putting them somewhere under the counter before producing a small green key. He fitted it into the bottom of the display case and opened it up, taking the USB out and placing it onto the counter.

Kanna’s heart beat got faster and faster the closer her hand got to the USB, and just when it felt like it was going to burst, she clutched it in her hand and took another deep breath.

“Please come back and make another purchase anytime.” The man bowed before returning to his regular neutral pose as if suddenly being turned to stone.

“Um, o-okay…” Kanna nervously promised before quickly retreating to the monitor room. She double checked that there was no one here, and began to mentally prepare herself.

She was pretty sure Sou was the last person to go to sleep for the night as it was getting very late, so there was no need to worry about anyone walking in on her. It was time. She was ready. She could do it.

She turned to the middle monitor and plugged the green USB into a port before gingerly pressing the power button.

Little did she know, someone was standing in the doorway leading to the lobby, watching her every move intently.

The video loaded up and Kanna found it hard to even breathe as she watched it play. The video showed Kugie strapped to the device from their shared First Trial, and Kanna could see herself cowering in a corner, eyes screwed shut and curled into a ball.

“L-listen to me, Kanna…” she heard her sister say in the most soothing voice she could manage.

“It’s okay. Your big sis is here, okay Kanna?” Despite her calm words, her voice was shaking undeniably. The Kanna in the video had her arms wrapped around her head, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Big sis needs your help, Kanna. Please- please get up.”

Kanna didn’t listen. Her entire body refused to move from the fetal position she had curled herself into. The Kanna of the present found it hard to watch the cowardly way she had hid from the situation.

Tears pricked at Kanna’s eyes, but when she rubbed them with her sleeve, she managed to hold them back.

She forced herself to watch as the artificial voice over them counted down from ten, and as the her of the past began to realise that it was too late. She curled even further into herself, hiding her face in her legs and repeating over and over again to her big sister that she was sorry.

“It’s-it’s okay, Kanna.” Kugie uncomfortably said as tears streamed down her face, understanding her fate. “B-big sis still loves y-” was all she could get out before the voice reached zero and the press folded over, crushing Kugie and spreading blood and viscera all over the trial room.

The Kanna in the present placed both hands to her mouth and gasped, watching the awful event first hand for the very first time.

The Kanna in the video opened her eyes for only a second as she looked down at the floor, seeing the blood spread across it and screaming as the video faded to black.

Kanna had to see more. She gripped a dial on the monitor and wound it back, rewinding and watching the entire video again. She watched inches from the monitor, lips tight and eyes wide as she desperately tried to reach some kind of conclusion.

Eventually, she only rewinded to the point of impact, watching the moment of death over and over again desperate for some kind of answer. She felt like she couldn’t take it anymore as she closed her eyes after rewinding and held her hands to the sides of her head as she experienced her sister’s death in sound alone, just as she had before.

She heard the press slam closed, and heard the squishing, crunching noise, followed by blood splattering on walls and the floor. It was a horrible, alien noise. One no one should have to hear.

_She’d really never heard anything quite like it._

Kanna’s eyes shot open as she reached for the dial, looking away at the moment of impact to focus only on the noise, over and over again. Things weren’t adding up. She looked back at the monitor just in time for herself in the video to see the blood on the floor. She tried to concentrate, to bring buried memories of the First Trial to the front of her mind finally. She remembered her sister’s voice, just as it was in the video, and she remembered screaming. But it was those points in between.

The her in the video saw the aftermath of the incident, if only for a moment. The Kanna now should be able to remember what it looked like.

Through sheer force of will, she managed to recall the sight she saw after her sister was crushed, but it didn’t seem right. She remembered seeing torn pieces of Kugie’s skirt and uniform on the floor, but there was no…  
Kanna loudly gasped as she finally brought her hands away from her head. She quickly pulled the green USB stick out of the monitor, turned it off and ran for the lobby as she shoved the USB into a pocket she had somewhere on her shirt.

In her haste though, she’d managed to run straight into some kind of tough object. She stepped back to look up, and was horrified to learn that she’d ran straight into Keiji’s leg. The detective was backlit by the light of the lobby, and was staring down at the girl with a completely unplaceable expression.

“Y-you…” Kanna warbled. “B-but Kanna thought…”

“Sorry, Kanna.” Keiji casually said. “Guess we policemen are used to long nights.”

“Did-did you… see Kanna…” she asked, shaking wildly.

“...Yep. Saw it all.” he grumbled.

“Um! Um, Kanna can explain! See, um, Kanna just thought if she, um-”

“Hey.” Keiji interrupted, holding out a palm towards her to tell her to stop with a friendly smile. “Don’t worry about it, ‘kay?”

He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out something that he showed to the girl, causing her to gasp in surprise. Held in Keiji’s hand was a small blue USB drive.

“Mr. Policeman here knows all about needing closure.”

Some time had passed since then. It was now the next day, for starters, and most people were up and about busying themselves with attractions and trades. Kanna had stayed in her room mostly though, as she had a lot to think about.

But now, she was convinced that she had her answer. She got off her bed and patted herself down, taking a deep breath as she left her room finally. Knowing that there was a good chance he was still in his room as well, she walked up to Sou’s door and firmly drummed on it with her knuckles. She heard something unlock before the door swung open, Sou seeming pretty surprised to see her at his doorstep.

“Kanna?” he slurred.  
“Kanna… Kanna needs to talk to you about something. In private.” Kanna said, wearing a determined expression. She didn’t wait for him to invite her in, instead walking straight past him and sitting on his bed, hands in her lap.

“...Alright, sure.” Sou closed the door and sat next to her, waiting for her to say whatever it was she had to say.

Kanna took a long time to think and manually breathe as she thought of the best way to say this, but after the first minute and a half Sou started to get impatient.

“I don’t have all day, Kanna.” he reminded her.

She nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t turn to Sou as she spoke. “It’s about… Kanna’s sister.”

Sou glanced down, adjusting his beanie in discomfort. He probably should’ve guessed it was going to be about this.

“See… Kanna… um…” she mumbled.

He began to prepare the usual lines. Such as ‘she would’ve wanted you to be happy’, ‘we’ll make it out of here for her’, etcetera.

Kanna clenched her hands around the cloth of her skirt as she tried to force it out. “Kanna thinks…”

Why did she come to him for this, anyway? He thought she was closer with Miss Sara due to the way Kanna was hiding behind her and everything ear-

_”Kanna thinks her sister is still alive!”_

“W…”

**”WHAT!?”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no more irony

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know how ironic this is anymore help me


End file.
